


Stargate SG-1: Blood and Stone

by Legume_Shadow



Series: Stargate Atlantis Alternate Season 3 [3]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Canon Parallel, Deleted Scenes, Diverges to Possible Alternate Universe, Gen, Not Entirely SG-1 Seasons 9-10 Compliant, Post Continuum, SG-1 Seasons 1-8 Compliant, SG-1 Takes A Back Seat, Spycraft, Thin Line Between Good and Evil, Tok'ra, Tok'ra-centric, Voices in the Head Shenanigans, day in the life, grey morality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2015-01-23
Packaged: 2018-03-04 02:10:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 73,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2905394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legume_Shadow/pseuds/Legume_Shadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For thousands of years, since even before the death of System Lord Ra, the Tok'ra have been the one force strong enough to resist the Goa'uld and fight back.  Blood spilt over the many millenia of fighting, along with refuges collapsing upon them have whittled them down to almost nothing.  However, that all changes when they find that one of their own, long thought dead, has returned and is now both the greatest threat they had ever faced and the only one who can save them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadow_Chaser](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Chaser/gifts).



> First Publishing: Dec 2014 - Jan 2015, AO3  
> Disclaimer: All characters (except for the ones created by me) belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made from this work of fiction.
> 
> This multi-chaptered work of fiction takes place both Post-Continuum and jumps around within the series proper. Not quite Season 9 and 10 compliant (because the author prefers that Season 8 be the definitive end of SG-1, even though Ba'al is a cool system lord to write about). I'd like to think that this is another variation/parallel universe that exists within the SG-1 universe.

**Prologue**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

The trickling sound of a thin stream of water within the cell was comforting to him as he continued to keep his eyes closed and leaned his head against the cool stone wall. Even though the planet was quite arid and dry, a world that spoke to the usual desert comforts they had adopted for such a long time, the stones underground were of another story. He didn't need to open his eyes to hear the footsteps of two people walking on the smoothed floor – he recognized who they were just by their footsteps.

_**Please?**_ he begged with that single word to the other entity living inside of him.

_A **re you sure...**_ she whispered to him, caressing his mind with a touch that was like a mother's calm touch towards a fussy newborn.

_**Yes...I can't face them, not while this ruse is still being played** _ **.**

As malevolent as he and the other entity inside of him had been since the destruction of Revanna, a fresh ache seared across his heart in anticipation to what was about to happen. Though he knew that it was for the better that what was about to happen, happen, the pain would not going away. It couldn't physically go away because it was all in his mind. For the many years they had been held captive, doing everything in their power to not die and to keep living until the future of their people could be guaranteed. But that future had come with a price so high that the devil finally caught them and demanded payment.

With a gentle touch upon his mind, he felt the other entity inside of him take over and slowly open his eyes. Even though they had perhaps, an hour at most left together, Leto, his symbiote; the reason why he was what he was for nearly fifty years, was still protecting him, ensuring that he come to no harm. Grief overwhelmed him, but physical tears did not fall from his eyes, and only blinked as the dim sunlight from what little slits of windows in the cell filtered in.

He watched though eyes not of his own control as two pairs of booted feet, one pair elegantly laced up, and the other quite austere and utilitarian, stop before his cell. Slowly, Leto brought his head up, as if his symbiote was also taking one last memory for both of their sakes of the two people who had come to visit him in this dank cell.

The glittering dark eyes of Malek and the expressive wide ones of Anise stared at him. Close, dear friends of old, still looking as they had been the last time he had seen them; how much he had missed them. Leto echoed that sentiment, but neither voiced or showed it.

He felt Leto smooth his facial expression into one of arrogance and haughtiness, determined to keep up the charade until death do them apart. Though it pained both him and his symbiote to still act like the minor system lord they had been for the last few years, it was necessary. There was one more thing he had to do, and he could not do it with Leto still within him. It was her final gift to him, one last mission for him to carry out and to honor the sacrifice she was about to perform. Unfortunately, they both knew that others of the Tok'ra would not understand, hence the continued deception.

A cultured voice shouted words, echoing all around the stone walls of the cells, but he felt himself flinch in surprise, though Leto kept them as still as possible, seemingly unaffected by the shouts. The voice above ground, in the main hall most likely, were belonging to the arrogant, but smooth-talking system lord, Ba'al. Mentally pushing away the rush of bad memories, he clung onto the physical world as Leto wrapped her presence around him shielding him from the waking nightmare. It took a while, but slowly he felt himself calm down and knew that soon, he would no longer have this sort of protection. Soon, he would be at the mercy of memories and would have to face it alone. But for now, he still had Leto; still had her love and warmth.

As for Ba'al, the tirade he was lashing upon those in observance at his execution above ground was muffled and incoherent to those down here in the cells. Ba'al had finally been captured a few months ago and had languished in a cell in even worse conditions than the one he and his symbiote had been put into. About three months after Ba'al's capture, Leto and he had been 'captured' by the Tok'ra and thrown down here, where they now had been rotting in for the past month.

“Aldwin,” Anise softly said, startling him. Fortunately, with Leto in control of his body, the arrogant smirk on his face was maintained, along with the stillness in which he sat on the floor of the cell. “Aldwin, if you can hear me, we are going to free you soon. Stay strong, Aldwin. The nightmare is almost over.”

“You waste your words, woman,” Aldwin heard his symbiote viciously sneer, keeping herself in the minor system lord persona of Leto, Espionage Adviser to Supreme System Lord Ba'al. “Time and again in the sarcophagus has damaged his mind beyond repair that he no longer can even form words, much less feed himself. If you kill me, you will kill him.”

“Better he die free than live forever as your slave, _snake_ ,” Malek spat out, but Aldwin gave a start – the voice was not those of the tones of Malek – it was Malek's host who had spoken.

Leto had merely blinked, but internally, Aldwin could feel that she too had been surprised. Anise had taken a step back, quite startled at the fact that Malek's host, whose name was virtually unknown to all Tok'ra since he had blended with Malek all those years ago, had finally spoken. While not common among the Tok'ra, a few of them had never revealed their host's name. Whether it was because the host did not feel like talking or for protective reasons, those among the Tok'ra had accepted it for none did not want to inflict unintentional trauma. Aldwin knew that Leto herself was the only symbiote of the Tok'ra who had never revealed her name, at least not her true name – for even after two thousand years, she had been afraid of drawing the ire of system lords. Such notoriety she had built prior to joining the Tok'ra was if she ever revealed herself, system lords would have hunted them to utter extinction. However, that had changed five-and-a-half years ago, and since no Tok'ra knew of her true name and only two system lords from the days of old knew of her but were too busy fighting amongst themselves, none had been the wiser about her.

The same safe anonymity could be said of Malek's host; the accent, the body mannerisms, even the thunderous expression that Malek's host carried were so different than Malek himself – it was as if a transformation had taken place between eye blinks. Aldwin curiosity as to who exactly Malek's host was sparked again, but with Leto still in person as a system lord until the end, he knew that possible answers would not be given until the execution was complete. What had finally given way to bring out Malek's host after all of these years of silence?

“Even now, I see there is still discord and contention among your ranks, Tok'ra,” Leto languidly said, leaning back with an air of arrogance, as if the damp stone walls of their cell did not both them. “Are you so surprised to hear an untethered host talk, woman?”

“No,” Anise snapped, recovering as she turned back to glare at them. Aldwin felt himself wince under the harshly hateful expression she carried on her face. Both Anise and Freya normally carried an expression that was kind, nice, and open with a hint of saucy playfulness that was lavished upon whomever she chose that day. Anise had twisted her mouth into an ungainly frown, marring her beauty, but he knew that it was only because she was quite angry right now.

Before any of them could say another word, there was a great and loud cheer from those above ground, and Aldwin knew that Ba'al had finally been extracted from his host and executed. It was their turn and now his nightmare was about to begin...

 

~*~*~*~


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

_~3.3 years after the death of Ra..._

 

Aldwin sneezed as dust from the current crystal he was carefully shaving with a sharp blade, wafted up into the air. He could hear the silent admonishment of his symbiote for not wearing a cloth to cover his nose and mouth. Though his eyes watered, it was his symbiote who ensured that particulates did not enter his nose, lungs, or eyes...except for that one sneeze. Sighing, he placed both the crystal and knife down on the workbench and absently scratched his nose. Seeing that there was no way to fight his symbiote on the necessity of wearing a dust cloth, for he hated the smell of the fabric, he gave in and grabbed the cloth from across the table.

Satisfaction radiated from his symbiote as he tied the cloth around his mouth and nose. After securing it, he picked up his tools again, but just as he was about start his work again, footsteps bounded into the small niche that had been grown as his laboratory. Looking up he saw that it had been Rosha who had disturbed him. Whenever Rosha's symbiote, Jolinar, walked, there was an air of stately grace about her, with footsteps that did not belay impatience as Rosha was prone to.

However, Rosha's steps were not those of impatience at waiting for him, but rather frustration, and with one glance up at her face, he knew that something bad had happened. Removing his face cloth, he placed it along with the blade and crystal on the table as he stood up, feeling concern also radiate from his symbiote.

“What's wrong?” he hesitatingly asked.

“Merin should have already made contact with Lysana,” Rosha stated without preamble, “But, they're already twenty hours overdue for a confirmation of extraction.” However, before he could take a step forward, Rosha held out her hands and continued to say, “I overheard the Council discussing options, Aldwin, but I don't think they're going to send in another extraction unit.”

“To hell they aren't,” he said, pushing past Rosha as he marched out of the laboratory and into the halls. He felt a strong hand grab him by the arm, stopping him. Turning slightly, he tried to shake it off, but Rosha's grip was too strong, and he knew then that it had to have been Jolinar who had taken over.

“Aldwin,” Jolinar said, “do not confront them. They still do not know why the killed operatives were at the Tau'ri homeworld all those months ago. Considering where Lysana was sent, it is possible that the same unknown circumstances are happening again. Do not risk the wrath of the Council with another petition.”

He glared at her, incensed with her suggestion that he would do such a thing like that when she knew full well that he would never beg the Council to send in yet another operative to rescue two potentially compromised operatives. Lysana, his mate, even though he loved and cherished her, was only one of many. He was well aware that their numbers had been dwindling quite rapidly since the death of Ra and the meteoric rise of Apophis. Something out there was killing Tok'ra at a faster rate than it had been for the past two thousand years.

Jolinar blinked and immediately, the iron grip on his arm was loosened, allowing him to shake loose and shake his arm out to try to get rid of the ache. Rosha had taken over again and in an apologetic tone, she said, “I'm sorry Aldwin. We meant to suggest that perhaps we will need to attempt this rescue another way.”

“Another way?” he asked, puzzled.

However, his answer was given as he heard and saw Martouf quickly approach them, and stopped before the two of them. “I have it and it's ready.”

“What's ready?”

“Come,” Martouf said, eyes belaying a rare look of seriousness as he gesturing with his hand for the two of them to follow him.

With a look at Rosha's determined expression, Aldwin felt his symbiote nudge him to trust their two friends to know what they were doing. He too had a hunch as to what had happened, and so he followed them down the crystalline halls. With every few intersections as they traveled deeper and away from the heart of the caves they had built on this world, he had a feeling that his hunch as correct. The halls they were traveling through were the way to the secondary ring room.

Two guards were stationed outside of the secondary ring room, but Lantash had taken over and said, “We have been asked to do retrieve items from the surface.”

“On whose orders?” one of the guards asked, hand not quite straying towards his zat'nik'tel. Aldwin could see that both Lantash and Jolinar, for the impatient gait that Rosha always displayed had been replaced by the confident stride of the symbiote, were not happy with the question. However, the questioning they faced was a part of security measures implemented long before, and without proper authorization, they could not access the secondary ring room.

“On my orders,” the voice of Anise spoke up from behind them, confident and commanding. The three of them turned slightly to see their friend walk up, with a arm-length bound notebook in her hands. “There are a few items that still need to be cataloged from the expedition and they have agreed to retrieve them. Please allow them through. It would be detrimental to hold up the primary ring room while they are bringing in these items, hence I would like them to utilize this place for the time being.”

“Very well,” the guard said and stepped to the side to allow the three of them through.

As the three of them stepped into the circumference of where the rings would descend up on them, Aldwin turned back to see Anise give them a slight nod as she stood idly by near the entrance to the room. He could see that she had an inkling as to why the three of them were gathered, and for that, he was grateful. As the rings descended and encompassed them, he hoped that it would be five of them returning here, not three.

~◊~

The journey by the stolen teltac, even with the hyperspace engines being pushed to the limit, was a long one. Sokar's territories were on the opposite side of the galaxy from where the Tok'ra had currently established their base. Time had been passed between meditation, preparation, and nervous waiting. When they arrived, Martouf's excellent piloting skills brought them out of hyperspace above the planet where Lysana's last transmission had come from, undetected. Aldwin's eyes widened in surprise as he saw the massive orbital construction yards. Sokar was building a massive fleet to rival or possibly eclipse that of Apophis.

As Martouf set the transport to orbit on very wide elliptical plane, they saw flurries of cargo ships shuttling back and forth between skeletons of ships being constructed. As their wide orbit continued, on the far side of the planet, the three of them saw another planetoid, quite close in proximity to the primary planet come into their view. Judging from the enormous and wide lesions of red-orange magma crisscrossing the planetoid, Aldwin could only only assume it was Netu, Sokar's little moon of hellish judgment.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Rosha flinch and look away from the viewport. Martouf removed his left hand from the pilot's console and briefly placed it on Rosha's own in comfort. The two stayed that way for a moment before Martouf resumed piloting.

“Lysana's last transmission came not from the surface, but from one of these ships in orbit,” Lantash spoke up, having taken over from Martouf.

“Is is possible for us to pinpoint which one?” Aldwin asked as he leaned against the console, eyes scanning all of the ships in various stages of construction. He only knew the basics of his mate's mission, nothing too detailed so that if he ever went into the field before Lysana returned and was compromised, he would not be able to completely compromise her mission.

“According to those at the meeting,” Rosha began, her voice quavering slightly but then grew stronger as she continued to speak, saying, “they think she managed to infiltrate the ship that is almost complete in terms of construction. I believe they'd hoped that she would be able to continue her mission on the ship once it complete its shakedown run. If Lysana and Merin have been captured, Sokar will also not transport any prisoners to Netu until he has tried to wring as much information out of them as possible. I remember spending at least a week or more in a prison cell before being transported to Netu's surface. Considering that they are Tok'ra, it is safe to say that Lysana and possibly Merin are still on the ship.”

“Then it has to be that one,” Martouf said, resuming control as he lifted a hand from the piloting console and briefly pointed to the ship that had the most cargo ships swarming it. “I will try to take us in without incident, but be ready to transport on board as soon as I give the word.”

He gave a curt nod to his friend and headed towards the cargo hold. A few moments later, Rosha joined him, and ensuring that their weapons were out, activated, and ready, they waited. Their wait was only a few minutes long, but as soon as Martouf's voice came over the transport's internal communications, Rosha hit the button to activate the transport rings and beamed them to the ship.

As soon as the multi-ringed structure disappeared around them, both he and Rosha dove to either side, seeking cover. Silence around this particular area in the still-under construction ship, but echoes of the jackbooted Jaffa could be heard. Rosha flitted across shadows to where he was, still eyeing the entrance to this particular area, but knew that they could not linger. Someone would have heard transport rings being activated and soon, they would come and see where and what had been supposedly delivered by yet another cargo ship.

“Jolinar remembers a few things about a ship such as this, and thinks that they will be near the middle of the ship,” Rosha whispered. “The problem is, there will be a lot of guards between here and there. We must go carefully.”

He nodded, and though his own symbiote had memories of ships similar to this one, they were old and out of date. All missions that he had undertaken since joining the Tok'ra were planet-based missions. He knew that Lysana loved ship-based missions more, since it took her and her symbiote to locales that proved to be very fruitful for information.

Together, both he and Rosha quietly and carefully made their way out of the storage room and traversed down the halls. Every so often, they dashed behind pillars or squeezed themselves into alcoves to avoid detection. For them to go in shooting would only be detrimental to their mission; it was also not their way of fighting the system lords or their Jaffa servants. Theirs was stealth-infiltration based, and it was how they survived as a people for two thousand years.

Finally, though to Aldwin and his symbiote, it had felt like ages, they reached the prisoner cell areas. There was sparsely a guard in the area, due to the fact that they were needed to help transport cargo, equipment, and other necessities to finish furnishing the inside of the vessel before it was completed. However, that did not mean that the cells were open – they had force fields up and around each area.

As he passed by each cell, peering in to see any sign of his mate or Merin, most were empty save a few that looked to have occupants. Though the force field was working, it seemed that most of the cells were still incomplete – walls that normally would have been solid to separate occupants from each other were of a honeycomb lattice. It was near the end of the long hall that he finally saw a familiar body, except that she was not moving.

“Lysana!” he couldn't help but shout, as he saw, near the corner of the cell, lying motionless with her beautiful face, splashed with flecks of blood, turned towards the lattice wall.

His symbiote was trying to calm him down as he spun around, placed his weapon back into its holster, and immediately went to the nearest panel wall. With the force amplified by his symbiote, he yanked the housing out, his mind clouded by a sense of panicked desperation. Crystals and a nest of wires laid before him as he plunged his hands into the mess and started ripping out connections and crystals. He barely heard Rosha approach and was barely aware that she had set up a lookout for any possible enemies while he tried to take down the force field.

_**Let me,**_ his symbiote said, and Aldwin was immediately shoved to the side as his symbiote took over and methodically rewired the entire contraption. A moment later, the faint, almost unheard hum of the force field was lowered and he took control of his body again. Rushing back down to where Lysana was, he fell to his knees as he wrapped his arms around his mate's body, drawing her close to him, frightened at just how cold it was. She was not breathing as he turned her face towards him, brushing back her dark hair, feeling her dried blood crumble beneath his fingers.

He knew not how long she had been dead, but just the sight of her, in her arms and not moving sent waves of rage and grief surging through him. Burying his face into the folds of what remained of her clothes covering her body, he, along with his symbiote, screamed.

“Aldwin!”

It was Jolinar's shout that brought him back up from the depths of the drowned sea of sorrow, and at once, he could hear the faint footsteps of Jaffa approaching. The shutdown of the force field had alerted them to trouble in this area. Clutching Lysana's body closer to him, he did not want to leave her here and wanted to give her a proper funeral, but knew that carrying her out was impossible.

“J-Jolinar...Al-Aldwin...” a voice haggardly whispered from near them. “Help...me...”

Confused, and not recognizing the voice, both he and Jolinar looked around, before realizing that the voice had come from the prisoner in the cell next to where Lysana was. He saw the prisoner , a lanky and much-too-thin-looking man, move slightly before the prisoner's eyes opened and briefly glowed.

“Malek?” Rosha questioned, before the barest of nods was seen by them. A sense of hope bloomed within Aldwin, with the source coming from his symbiote, and he could not help but cling on to that. His arms still held the dead body of his mate, but her memories, along with her symbiote, Malek, still lived on. It was more than he could ask for right now, and as Rosha dashed out of the cell and into the adjoining one, he carefully placed Lysana back down on the ground.

Getting up to a crouch, he removed his zat'nik'tel from the holster, as the footsteps of approaching Jaffa increased in volume. Glancing over, he saw that Rosha had lifted Malek's new host to a standing position, and had slung one of his arms around her shoulders. She half-carried him, half-hobbled out of the cell, and even with that small of a movement, Malek's new host's face was contorted in agony. Clearly Malek had not enough time to heal the host before they had arrived.

Activating his zat'nik'tel, he stepped back and aimed the weapon at Lysana. Squeezing the trigger three times, bolts of blue lanced out one after the other and a moment later, her body was no more. Sokar would no longer be able to harm her. Taking a breath that he realized that he had been holding, he turned his attention back to Rosha and the severely injured Malek.

Coming up on the other side, he took up Malek's other arm around his shoulders and together, both he and Rosha started forward. However, Malek stopped their movement when he slurred, “Merin...” He weakly gestured towards another cell, and Aldwin looked over to see another body in a separate cell, curled up in a dark corner, almost hidden away, had it not been for Malek's gesture.

Giving a nod to Rosha, he unslung himself from assisting Malek and hurried to the cell. Pulling as carefully as he could, he uncurled the Tok'ra, noting that Merin's skin was quite flayed and there was fresh blood soaking through cloth, but Merin's body was still somewhat warm. “Merin,” he urgently said, knowing that they did not have a lot of time to even try to hide somewhere before the Jaffa guards came. “Merin!” he repeated.

“Rasu...dead...” he heard the faint, almost indiscernible whisper from the Tok'ra, as Merin's eyes fluttered slightly. “Toxin...”

As stunned as he was, it was at the urging of his symbiote that he moved away. Rasu, Merin's symbiote, was already dead, and upon dying, he had released the poisonous toxin into Merin's body. Whether it was by accident or deliberately done by Sokar's hands, he could no longer save Merin. Getting up, he took a few steps back and let loose three bolts of blue from his weapon. The dying Tok'ra's body disappeared and he turned back around, jogging out of the cell and back up the hall to find that Rosha and Malek had made it to the entrance.

However, their path to freedom was a one-way hall, and there were already sounds of Jaffa entering the curved hall. Gesturing for Rosha to take Malek and stand on one side of the entrance, he took the other side and pressed himself as close to the entrance wall as possible. Rosha had leaned the barely conscious Malek in the intersecting corner and had her zat'nik'tel activated and ready. He and his symbiote were quite set in their conviction, determined that all three of them escape from the ship, no matter what.

The sounds of stomping boots grew but neither he nor Rosha moved until the first two Jaffa guards entered. At once, they let loose several bolts, striking all four guards in a flurry so fast that there was a very sharp smell in the air from the sheer number of zat'nik'tel bolts. The heavy bodies of the Jaffa thumped to the ground, with their staff weapons clattering at their feet.

Scrambling over the bodies, he slung one of Malek's arms over his shoulders and moved forward as quickly as he could without trying to continue to injure the host body as much as possible. Jolinar, having taken control from Rosha, had taken out a small communicator and was quietly, but quickly communicating with Martouf on the other end. He knew that they would not be able to make it to the original cargo storage area without attracting the attention of other Jaffa on the ship. Therefore, they needed to find another way out.

Slowly but steadily, the three of them made their way through the ship, slipping into spots to hide as they heard Jaffa pass by them. While the groups of Jaffa were quite small, they could not repeat their actions at the cell area, for dead or stunned bodies of Jaffa lying about would most definitely attract attention. Unfortunately, they were caught out in a hall when alarms started to blare over the ship-wide communications system.

“Martouf, we have a problem,” Jolinar stated into the communications device as she slung Malek's other arm around her own shoulders. Together, both of them lifted Malek slightly and half-ran towards the nearest cargo storage room they could find. They made it into the room and the door slipped closed just as booted feet turned the corner. Breathing a sigh of relief, Aldwin, took most of Malek's weight onto him as Jolinar stepped out and away. “We are on sub-level _danith_ , room _verak_ , I think.”

“I can try to get there, but there's a swarm of gliders out here, and they're telling the cargo ships to clear the area,” Martouf said, his voice tinny and a bit strained over the communicator. “Get yourselves ready. This will become very tricky.”

Jolinar clicked the communicator off and stuck it into a pocket before quickly hauling a few boxes near the center of the room away. Malek had finally passed out again, and Aldwin dragged him towards where Jolinar was. Just as she kicked the last of the boxes clear, she reached over and helped him take part of Malek's host body's weight away from him. The three of them only had to stand in the middle of the cleared area before rings descended upon them and transported them out of the ship.

Even before the transport beam had fully materialized them into the cargo ship, Aldwin felt the ship rock with multiple blasts hitting them. As soon as the rings disappeared, Jolinar shouted, “Go!”

There was another lurch as the little cargo ship tried to rocket away from its pursuers. None of them could find steady footing as more blasts rocked the ship, but a moment later, the shuddering stopped, and he knew that they had finally made it into hyperspace. He could feel relief flood him, most of it coming from his symbiote, and a moment later, the cargo hold's door opened, revealing Martouf. Concern was etched upon his face as he took in those in the cargo hold.

He saw his friend stop short of fully entering the hold, and saw Jolinar shake her head at Martouf as he eased the unconscious body of Malek's new host to the ground. Stepping back slightly, he watched the shallow rise and fall of the host's chest. The grief, sorrow, and pain that had been held back by adrenaline and the need to escape was flooding back into him as he stared at the new body that Malek had taken. Lysana was gone, and no one, not even Malek's memories, was going to be able to replace her.

_**Shh,**_ his symbiote whispered to him, wrapping her soothing and warm presence around him. Though symbiotes were genetically asexual, his symbiote had long adopted female characteristics, having taken mostly female hosts throughout her long life. There had only been five times that his symbiote had taken a male host, with Aldwin being the fifth one. Emergency circumstances nearly fifty years ago had dictated that happening, but he did not mind carrying around a female-identified symbiote.

Malek though; Malek greatly preferred male hosts, and it was mostly due to his preference to blend in, seduce a target, get the information, and get out. Malek had found it easier with a male host to complete his objectives that way. Twenty years before Aldwin had become a Tok'ra, Malek had surprised most of the community by blending with a female host, Lysana. No one except for him, Aldwin, and his symbiote, knew why Malek had done so. He also knew Malek well enough to know that the symbiote was extremely protective of Lysana.

Now though, Lysana was dead, and lying prone in the cargo hold of the tiny ship, there was a new host for Malek to repair...if he was strong enough. Lysana was the love of Aldwin's life, but neither the symbiotes they carried had as strong of a bond as he had with her. However, that did not mean that their symbiotes had not been friends, for they were. It had only been to Malek and Lysana that Aldwin's symbiote had told of her name, though not her true name.

“Hyperspace engine capacity is down to seventy-five percent,” Martouf spoke up, bringing him out of his musings. “We only have ten percent shields, so the landing will be rough.”

“It was worth it,” he stated, keeping his voice as steady as possible as he brought his eyes up from staring at Malek's new host to Martouf. “Sokar cannot hurt Lysana, Merin, and Rasu anymore. Malek is still alive. It was worth it.”

~◊~

There was a certain sort of reverent silence that was observed whenever one entered the infirmary, but when Anise entered, she couldn't believe what her eyes were showing her. Even Freya was wondering if they needed to be checked, for in the corner of the nearly-empty infirmary, sitting up in bed was Malek. It was not the fact that he was sitting up, for the healers had gotten right to work on mending the host's and he looked much healthier and rosier than he had been. It was the fact that he was holding a rather large glass that was normally used while dealing with chemical mixtures in one hand, and sipping the contents within the glass.

There was a very distinct, sharp, almost noxious smell coming from the glass and she couldn't believe her eyes at what she was seeing. She approached and caught his eyes, and watched as he lowered the glass. Silently, she looked at the glass and then back up at him. While she knew nothing of the mannerisms of Malek's new host, she knew the mannerisms of Malek, and the way he was sitting, the cool, calculated stare that he gave her, everything about the way he carried himself screamed that it was Malek in control of the body.

“My host would not quiet down,” Malek stated as if it were an everyday occurrence for him to be drinking something as foul-smelling as what he was currently drinking. “Apparently, in the portion of the world he is from, he has stated that it is customary for his culture to imbibe something this strong to dull the pain and nerves... along with memories.” He took another sip. “I think it just kills brain cells and is something he made up. At least he told me the composition of the chemical formula. Now, thankfully, he is finally quieting down.”

Anise gaped at him, though she could feel Freya perk up, curious as to the culture of the people from Malek's host's homeworld that Malek had described. Hesitatingly, she asked, “From where does your host hail?”

Malek placed the glass on the stone table next to the bed, his eyes taking on a distant look as he shook his head. “I would rather not say, Anise. My host has been through so much, and I would like him to rest and recover in peace.”

She nodded, knowing that it would take time and decided not to prod. “Are you well enough to brief the Council? They are currently being debriefed by Martouf, Rosha, and Aldwin.”

“Yes.”

Though Malek was still slightly unsteady on his feet as both he and Anise made their way through the halls to where the Council was gathered, she could see that he still tried to carry himself with pride and did not try to show any sort of pain he might have been in. Even with a new host, her friend was still as stubborn as he ever was.

They entered the Council chamber, drawing the attention of the Councilors, along with Martouf, Aldwin, and Rosha. She stopped near the entrance, knowing that she was not allowed in unless she had something to contribute. Cautious, concerned eyes, not only from the three who had rescued him but also from two of the Councilors, watched Malek slowly make his way into the room.

Charts were brought up on the center table, but as she watched the briefing, she found that Malek was now carrying himself with some distance, as if an impersonal shield had descended upon him. Lysana's death, along with both Merin and Rasu, had hit them all hard, and she could acutely feel Freya's grief for the loss of their best friend. However, the way Malek carried himself, was not only that of one in mourning, but also one who seemed to grow insular, as if forming a shell that barred anyone from approaching.

It was a very strange, profound thing to watch, for she had never seen this type of reaction in her friend before, even during the many times when he had taken a new host. Something about Lysana's death seemed to have hit him hard. Malek was retreating into himself, and with his host still recovering from whatever trauma had been inflicted upon him as Sokar's captive, the bold, confident Tok'ra she had known was disappearing.

Time healed all wounds, but she couldn't help but wonder if this particular wound would ever heal.

 

~*~*~*~


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

“So, have you come to gloat over your victory, Tok'ra?”

It took both of Anise and Freya's wills combined not to flinch at the hostile tone that the Goa'uld within their friend had taken on. Even though both of them loved Aldwin like a little brother, the sheer amount of hatred and fury etched upon the familiar face frightened them. Anise had more control, and thus Freya had allowed her to retain it while they were faced with what had become of their friend.

Aldwin's normally placid, calm expression was not present as the Goa'uld inside of him twisted his face into a sneer, as the Goa'uld said, “My host's memories of the two of you are quite rich, and he offered no resistance to my invasion of his 'precious' memories.”

Anise watched as the Goa'uld rose from sitting on the damp cell's floor, as if the month that he had been locked in here with barely any sustenance to keep his host alive, had no effect. The Goa'uld approached them, separated only by the bars that lined the cell, but neither she nor Malek's host took a step back. Malek's host was still in control of their shared body, and judging from how he stood, she could tell that Malek's host, whoever he was, was furious.

“Anise,” the Goa'uld malevolently purred, dragging out her name with a sinister smile on his face as he turned his attention to her. “and your host is...Freya...”

_**Courage, Anise. Courage,**_ Freya whispered to her, sending strength and fortifying thoughts through their bond.

“The Tau'ri that you lust after, Freya, will never love you, no matter how hard you try to win his hearts, even through physical affection,” the Goa'uld said in a gloating tone. “That debacle with Kaannan and his pathetic Tau'ri host, O'Neill, have permanently stained his views of the Tok'ra. He only know you as a parasite, as a--”

The Goa'uld was immediately silenced as he slammed into the bars of the cell with a ringing thud, having been viciously snatched by the front of his threadbare clothes and yanked forward by Malek's host. “The only parasite I see is you!” Malek's host hissed.

Anise had felt Freya briefly take over and propel themselves back a couple of steps when Malek's host briefly released the Goa'uld, only to grab his shirt front again and ram him back into the cell bars for a second time. The Goa'uld started to maniacally chuckle, even though she knew that he must be at least a little dizzy from slamming his head into the bars twice now. Malek's host let go again--

“Stop!” she said, rushing up to him, and forcefully placed her hands on Malek's host's arm before he could reach out repeat his actions against their prisoner for a third time. “Stop,” she repeated with a pleading tone. She didn't know Malek's host name at all, but she hoped that somewhere in there, Malek would be able to reason with his host. Even in victory, she did not want to see their ideals, their philosophy to be different from the Goa'uld, ruined by stooping to the same torture techniques employed upon them by their captors.

A change immediately came over Malek as she saw him regain control over his host's body. Backing away, Anise let his arm go as he saw Malek blink several times, his expression torn between rage and remorse. However, she also noticed that the Goa'uld had also stopped laughing and was tracing a finger over his own bruised face, wiping a thin trickle of blood from the cut on his host's forehead.

“I will call for the guards,” she heard Malek mutter, turning away from her and started back down the long hall. “Ba'al is dead. We want Leto executed as soon as possible.”

Anise and Freya helplessly watched as their friend stalked down the hall, hunched over in anger and misery, knowing that neither could do a thing or say a word to comfort Malek or his host. Both of them had dedicated the last few years of their life in a relentless pursuit of the Goa'uld sitting in the cell. Anise had watched as Malek and his host's near-single minded pursuit of the evasive and cunning Goa'uld had drawn many admirers. It had even made Malek in particular, more notorious than Garshaw. However, the price that came with the hunt of this particular Goa'uld was dear, for when Malek and his team finally launched their assault on the stronghold of this Goa'uld, they found that their friend, Aldwin, had been revived and had been host to the Goa'uld.

“Pathetic,” she heard the Goa'uld mutter, as she glanced back to see him sit back down against the wall of the cell. “Untethered hosts--”

“Oh shut up,” Freya snapped as she leapt forward, breaking Anise's control over their shared body. For a moment, Anise wanted to protest, but even her own patience was wearing thin, and so she let her host take them away, marching as quickly as possible towards the entrance to the cells. Malek was right – the faster they executed the Goa'uld within Aldwin, the better for any of their sanity.

~◊~

_~3.5 years after the death of Ra..._

 

There was a buzz in the air as word filtered down from the sentries above of visitors from the Tau'ri, having been sent here by Jolinar. Though Garshaw had all but shooed most of them from the chamber that the sentries were going to bring these Tau'ri travelers to, more than a few of them stood idly, peeking in through the niches placed in the halls that led to the chamber.

Aldwin and Anise were among the curious few, though Aldwin glanced back for a moment to see Anise beckoning the still-reticent Malek to join them. Lysana's death still lingered within his mind, but like his symbiote had said, the pain would eventually fade away, and it was starting to. It was helped by the fact that at least Malek was still alive and still had the memories of Lysana. However, he had not talked to him about Lysana, seeing that the symbiote himself was still in mourning.

It was strange though, that Malek's host still had not said a word to any of them, or even taken control of the body, as if greatly preferring that Malek do all of their daily actions for them. However, Aldwin did not try to press the issue, knowing and understanding that sometimes, the host was traumatized enough to not want to come out of his or her shell, until at least he or she was more comfortable. It would take time, and he gave both Malek and his new host as much room as possible.

Anise though... Anise was one to not sit idly by and had tried to integrate Malek back into their little circle of friends. It had worked to an extent, but Aldwin did try to convince both Freya and Anise to give Malek some space. Now though, he was puzzled – the curiosity that Malek had displayed before Lysana had died was now virtually non-existent – wasn't he as curious as the rest of them about the Tau'ri travelers?

He felt two arms lay on top of his head and then the slight pressure of someone laying their head upon the arms. Shifting slightly, he glanced up and partially saw that the pressure on top of his head was from Anise, who had a curious smile on her face, but was looking out towards the chamber. Shifting a bit more on the middle of the short flight of crystalline stairs that he stood on, he leaned against the wall, knowing that his symbiote really did not like it whenever Anise or Freya tried to use their head as a temporary perch or a resting spot.

Anise merely shifted her weight on the higher steps, but did not lift her arms or head up from her perch. Aldwin mentally sighed at the same time his symbiote did – somethings never changed. However, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Malek approach, but stop at the top of the stairs and lean against the opposite wall. Malek was almost just out of view of the chamber, but still close enough that the echoes of what was being said would reverberate to where he was standing. So Malek was curious too...

They saw Cordesh enter first, his gait strong and unaffected by the travelers that filtered in after him. First to enter of the Tau'ri, dressed in what looked like a dark green jumpsuit was a tall man with greying hair peeking out from under his head covering. Second to follow was a woman in the same type of dark green jumpsuit, though her hair was lightly colored and she wore a dark blue head covering. Both of them had wide-eyed wondrous looks upon their faces. Following the two were another man, young-looking with spectacles upon the bridge of his nose and--

Jaffa!

Both he and Anise jerked back in surprise, and the faint echoes of others standing outside of the hall told him that they too had the same reaction. A Jaffa was traveling, unshackled, with the Tau'ri people. He could feel his symbiote's anger, but remained where he was – he was very curious as to why Apophis' first prime was among the Tau'ri.

Martouf took up the rear of the group, and from what he could tell of his friend's stance, it looked like he was wary, but at ease enough to not think of any of the visitors a threat...at least not yet. Aldwin could feel both himself and his symbiote relaxing with Martouf's actions, knowing that Lantash would have never agreed to let these people into their base unless they were not a danger to their security or safety. A soft scraping sound on the smooth floor told him that Anise had decided to move from standing behind him to next to him, very curious as to what was about to happen.

“People of the Tau'ri,” Cordesh said, turning to face the gathered visitors. “Let me introduce Grand Councilor Garshaw.”

Aldwin watched with slight apprehension as Cordesh stepped to the side to allow Garshaw, who had been waiting in another niche in the chamber, rise gracefully from her seat. _**Check your actions, Aldwin,**_ his symbiote suddenly said, and he found that his right hand had strayed to the zat'nik'tel that rested in its holster by his waist side. He didn't move his hand away, but instead, rested it on the weapon.

“Greetings,” Garshaw said, clasping her hands together as she walked towards the visitors and stopped before them.

“Hi,” the greying-haired man said, though Aldwin could see that there was most definitely a strained smile on the man's face.

“You are Garshaw,” the Jaffa repeated, his tone almost awe-like.

“I am,” the Tok'ra Grand Councilor simply confirmed.

He watched as the Jaffa walked around the people of the Tau'ri, and could also see critical eyes tracking the man. However, there was still an awe-like expression on the Jaffa's face as he stopped next to the greying haired man, before leaning a bit towards the man, saying, “She is the most hunted Goa'uld of all time.”

“We prefer that you do not refer to us as 'Goa'uld',” Aldwin heard Garshaw say with a touch of annoyance in her tone.

_**Yes, please don't,**_ his symbiote silently agreed.

“Yeah,” the grey-haired man said, though the tone sounded slightly dismissive, “we got that earlier. What should we call you?”

Garshaw took a few steps forward, closing the distance between her and the visitors to a more friendly space, saying, “I assume that you are from the first world, the Tau'ri?”

“Yep,” the grey-haired man said, nodding.

“Were you among those,” their Grand Councilor asked, “who rid the galaxy of the Supreme System Lord Ra?”

“Yep, that's us...that's...yeah, we're those.”

“Then in a sense, you are Tok'ra,” Garshaw said.

Aldwin briefly closed his eyes as he felt his symbiote retch a little in their shared space. As surprising as the news was, a Jaffa among the Tau'ri was considered a Tok'ra? Who, besides Ra, had died and decided that Jaffa were rebelling against their falsely lauded masters? The idea was laughable and impossible to believe.

“Of course!” the younger-looking man in their group suddenly exclaimed, causing Aldwin to open his eyes again. “Tok'ra. Tok-ra. Against Ra. Thank you for sharing that.”

“We still don't know what to call her,” the grey-haired man said.

Fortunately, Garshaw had many a patience and grace to take the idle chatter from the Tau'ri and merely bowed her head slightly, saying, “We too are Tok'ra.”

“Finally!” was the near-sarcastic quip from the greying haired man.

The fair-haired woman was a bit more diplomatic as she said, “It's a pleasure to meet you.”

“I understand that you were sent to us by Jolinar?” Garshaw stated, bringing the introductions to a close. “Please, tell us how that came to be.”

“Well,” the fair-haired woman began, “It's a long story. We were on this planet, Nassia, and the Goa'uld were attacking. Jolinar's host was killed.”

_Martouf_ , Aldwin thought, as he glanced over to see concern and grief eclipse his friend's face. Martouf had not been there, nearly three months ago, having kept the teltac primed and ready to take off at a moment's notice, but it had been Jolinar and Rosha who had seen his, Aldwin's, reaction to Lysana's dead body. However so, his heart still went out to his friend.

“He jumped into me while I was trying to save his host,” the woman continued to say.

_**If this woman is referring to Jolinar as 'he', it means that Rosha perished somewhere before,**_ his symbiote said.

“Please, excuse me,” Martouf interrupted, struggling to keep both his expression and voice as calm as possible. “Did you say that Jolinar's host was killed?”

“Yes,” the woman confirmed. “I'm sorry.”

“But Jolinar,” Martouf continued in a stronger tone, “lived on?”

“Ah, yeah, for a while...at least,” she answered, “inside of me.” She glanced over at Garshaw, her face a mask of uncertainty and asked, “Should I continue?”

“Please,” their Grand Councilor said.

~~~

It was a while later that most of the Tok'ra listening to the Tauri in the chamber finally dispersed. While the Tau'ri team might have thought that it was cruel to keep them on the planet, Aldwin was amongst those who thought that their location had already been potentially compromised with the arrival of another group of Tau'ri, and allowing the final host of Jolinar along with the grey-haired man who really did not seem to like Tok'ra, go. However, with the agreement that a potential host was being brought from the Tau'ri homeworld, perhaps the alliance could be renewed. He knew though, that Garshaw was right – the Tau'ri, for all of their bravado and lucky destruction of both Ra and two of Apophis' ships, were technologically ill-equipped. If they made an alliance, it would most likely be very limited in scope, for they could not have a brash group of people stomping all over the galaxy with the secrets of the Tok'ra in their minds.

It was his symbiote who nudged him from his scraping and shaping of the current crystal at his workbench, and looked up to see Martouf enter the chamber. He knew that his friend had asked to speak to the woman who last carried Jolinar without her fellow Tau'ri team members present. When Martouf had returned, there had been a much calmer, more peaceful look upon his face.

Before he could say any words of comfort or express his sorrow at the loss of both Rosha and Jolinar, a scout ran in. “Martouf!” the scout said before giving a nod of acknowledgment to others in the chamber. “Scouts in the Sho-ankor Quadrant report that the system lords know of our whereabouts! They have dispatched two motherships and will be here within the day!”

Aldwin dropped his tools on the workbench as Martouf merely gave a curt nod at the news and rushed out of the chamber, most likely to inform Garshaw of the situation. Others followed suit, and though Aldwin followed them, at the next intersection, he turned and hurried towards a particular chamber. Nestled deep within the winding halls of the crystal caves, this particular chamber served not only as a central area where they took their meals, but also where the crystals used for tunneling and collapsing tunnels were stored.

Said crystals were kept in a chest that was sitting quite innocuously next to a wall. Throwing open the chest, he took the satchel that was inside of the chest and started to pluck all of the crystals out of their housing materials. Behind him and echoing all around the halls, he could hear the scattered footsteps of other Tok'ra – Garshaw and the council must have ordered the evacuation to begin.

Though in this particular Tok'ra cell, he was not the only one to work on crystal tunneling, he had been appointed by Garshaw when they had established this cell, to lay down the crystals that would start the collapse of their base.

While a simple job, especially since all Tok'ra had a working knowledge of how the tunneling crystals worked, collapsing tunnels and ensuring that the stability of the rest of the evacuation routes during a collapse was trickier. If the wrong combination of crystals was placed, or the combination was placed out of order and alignment, then a great number of malignant consequences could happen. For the past few years, he, along with a few of the other Tok'ra had been trying to find a way to fuse the process into a simpler, single crystal, but their many attempts had proved unsuccessful so far.

Closing the chest, he clutched the satchel close to him, as he ran from the chamber and back down the halls. He passed by Anise, who was carrying a medium-sized chest that most likely contained her research notes, but did not spare her another glance. With the system lords bearing down upon them in what could be a matter of hours, they needed to start collapsing the extensive tunnels as soon as possible.

As he traversed deeper and deeper into the labyrinth, it became quieter and quieter, and pretty soon, all he heard were his own footsteps. Sleeping chambers were empty and devoid of people, items, and life-support equipment. There was a certain amount of chaos that went into an evacuation – with most of them dumping what little personal items of theirs and of friends they had into communal chests. Items would be sorted out later when their new base had been established.

“Aldwin!”

He skidded to a halt and turned upon the shout of his name and saw Malek running towards him from another vein in the tunnel network. “It is clear!” his friend stated, and he knew that it was now safe for him to begin collapsing everything in the living quarters area.

It had happened a very long time ago, before Aldwin had become a Tok'ra, so it was through his symbiote's memories that he remembered that upon discovery by the system lord Ba'al, they had lost three of their numbers to accidental collapse. The three Tok'ra had been trying to move a piece of instrument or chest of some sort when they had been devoured by the liquified crystalline structure. The Tok'ra who had started to collapse the tunnels had not thoroughly checked to see that all chambers had been evacuated. Since that accident, each Tok'ra cell had ensure that at least a few of their members scour the areas before giving the all-clear to those collapsing tunnels.

“Thank you,” he said giving him a nod.

“Wait,” Malek started before he could turn to leave. “Garshaw wants to leave the area where Selmak is resting uncollapsed. We do not know if the Tau'ri will return with their potential host, but Lantash has asked her to wait.”

He nodded and without another word, the two of them went their separate ways. He still had his doubts about the Tau'ri, especially on their reliability, but if Garshaw acquiesced to Lantash's request, then he would place his faith in a possible new alliance with her. If Selmak's resting place was not to be disturbed, he needed to start the collapse in another area. At the end of a long hall, full of tiny niches, he finally stopped and opened the satchel. In order for him to ensure that the tunnel collapse was even and stable, it required speed and accuracy and so he stepped to the side to let his symbiote take over.

Watching his symbiote activate the collapsing sequence always fascinated him. With precision honed by nearly two thousand years of practice, each crystal, different in shape and size was placed down upon the ground in a circular manner. When the ring was complete, the final crystal was then slammed into the center of the array, starting the sequence.

Luminous light bloomed as the crystals reacted to each other and started to chew through the tunnel, replacing stone with crumbling earth. Aldwin felt his symbiote lift his body up and sprint faster than he normally could, towards the other end of the long hall. The same pattern was created and as soon as the liquified stone-eater bubbled up and started to grow, his symbiote carried him out of there.

Aldwin regained control of his body as he heard the loud, crackling echoes of stone being crushed, and continued to run towards the primary ring room. In a matter of minutes, when the two ends of the liquid mass met at the intersection, it would grow into an enormous stone-eating monster. While it was much more effective to start a structural collapse in the middle of the base, it was not practical. Most of their heavy equipment, laboratories, and other necessities were at the forefront of the tunnels – kept there to ensure that decisions could be promptly made. To start the collapse in the back would give more time for other personnel to get all of their vital data out and to ensure that they did not lose any important pieces of information or technology.

He reached the primary ring room and helped drag a chest to the center of the ring before he and another Tok'ra stood on either side of it and were transported up to the surface. Helping his fellow Tok'ra lift and carry the heavy chest, they started towards the glowing blue shimmer of an active chappa'ai. The satchel containing the remaining crystals was secured at his waist, and he knew that once he arrived at their new home, tunneling would immediately begin.

~◊~

There was a sense of apprehension in the air as they waited for those checking the initial tunnel created with the crystals to give the all-clear signal. It was during these times that Anise and her host felt the most vulnerable. She felt a presence step up to her and turned slightly to see that it was Malek who had stopped next to her, though he was nervously fiddling with his zat'nik'tel.

It didn't bother her that Malek's new host still had not made himself known, but it did bother her that the normally friendly personality in Malek had all but disappeared when he had been rescued nearly three months ago. Still, it was good to see that with the Tau'ri people's appearance and the unexpected evacuation, it had managed to get Malek to say more than one or two word responses.

“I hope that Garshaw and the others are all right,” she murmured. Garshaw, Cordesh, Martouf, and another member of their High Council, Brithan, had not appeared through the chappa'ai when it had closed a little over an hour ago. She desperately hoped that they had not been captured – they could not bear the loss of more of their people, especially since they had to leave Selmak behind and had only just found out of Jolinar's passing.

“Have faith, Anise,” Malek softly said. “They are--”

At once, they, along with many others scattered about, saw the chappa'ai's ring light up and the familiar _whoosh_ of the shimmering blue fill the inside of the ring. For those who were considered sentinels for the Tok'ra, both on the surface and within their home, zat'nik'tels and a few staff weapons were all activated and pointed towards the chappa'ai. Because of the trauma Freya went through before Anise had blended with her, she hated weapons of any sort. So Anise had made a vow to her host to never hold or fire a weapon unless death was imminent and it was the only way they could escape. She had heard more than a few of the other more extremists in their community call her 'coward', but she did not care. The need and care of her host came first.

She shrank behind Malek, but found that she did not need to as the familiar forms of Garshaw and Martouf, accompanied by an unknown third person who looked quite old. Weapons were deactivated as the three descended to where the rest of their brethern were, and Anise saw that Garshaw was holding a metal-looking box of some sort. However, no other persons accompanied the three of them through the chappa'ai, and that worried her.

“Tell them to stop tunneling,” Garshaw commanded.

Anise saw one of the Tok'ra nearest to where tunnelers were, shout a few words down the hole that had been created. At once the clinking of tools inside of the hole stopped and a few moments later, three heads covered in grime, dirt, and a lot of dust popped up out of the hole. She couldn't help but smile at just how comical of a sight Taelon, Aldwin, and Xau made, looking curiously around, wondering why they had been ordered to stop tunneling. The three, popping out of the hole, reminded both her host and her of a small furry creature, well...vermin more like it, on her host's home planet.

“Ya kind of look like prairie dogs like that,” she heard the old man standing next to Garshaw say out loud before frowning slightly, as if it was something that he meant not to say out loud. Anise wondered if the old man was Selmak's new host, since he was wearing nearly the same outfit as those of the Tau'ri.

However, Garshaw ignored the comment and said, “Cordesh betrayed us.” Silence greeted her words with only the wind on this dusty, sandy new planet filling it. Shock was clearly etched upon their faces for none of them expected their most senior sentinel to do such a thing. “Because of this, we cannot stay here. We will need to find a new home,” Garshaw continued, “so if any of you have suggestions, please put them forth. Is Brithan here?”

“No, Garshaw,” Jorin spoke up. “She broke free and ran further into the tunnels. We could not capture her lest we risk running into the collapsing sections.”

“There were no others except for Selmak, Captain Carter, and I when we got to the primary ring room,” Martouf spoke up. “It is safe to say that she perished, along with what is left of Cordesh.”

Garshaw nodded, before saying, “Scouts will set up a perimeter while we examine suggestions for our second new home. Sentinels will form a second perimeter near the chappa'ai. All other personnel and equipment will gather as close to the chappa'ai as possible. The Tau'ri homeworld will be our emergency evacuation location for now. If we need to flee there before we can go to our new home, take only the most necessary of our equipment with you.”

Heads nodded in affirmation but there was something else that their revered leader wanted to say as she placed a hand on the shoulder of the old man, saying, “Selmak has taken a new host. This is Jacob Carter of the Tau'ri. He will be the liaison between us and the Tau'ri.”

“Hey, folks,” Selmak's new host said, giving a wave of his hand before both he and Martouf walked over to a cluster of Tok'ra to begin introductions. Anise saw that Garshaw had called for Taelon, Aldwin, and Xau, most likely to discuss the what they had left of the tunneling crystals.

She half-listening to the situation, with Freya unhappy at the fact that with what crystals they had left, quarters would have to be shared and space would be quite cramped until they could grow more or retrieve some from the other Tok'ra cell that was located on the far side of the galaxy. However, both of them were fascinated with Selmak's new host, and very curious as to what the Tau'ri people were like. The scientist within her, along with the archaeologist within Freya wanted to study the Tau'ri technology – to see how indeed, they had defeated Ra and Apophis' two motherships.

“Come,” she said, taking Malek by the hand and tugged him towards where a group was gathering around Jacob Carter. When Malek did not move she looked back and saw that there was a very stony and stormy look on her best friend's host's face. “What is the matter?” she asked, letting his hand go.

However, the look on Malek's face passed as he curtly said, “Nothing.” He took a few steps towards Jacob Carter, but she could see that those steps were quite stiff. Something about Selmak's new host was making Malek nervous. Earlier, Malek had been quite reluctant to even see the curiosity and fascination surrounding the Tau'ri group – had the Tau'ri people, in all of their apparent gallivanting around the galaxy, done something traumatic to Malek's host or to the host's homeworld before?

She could only speculate, but she hoped that it would not cause the beginnings of a fragile alliance they had created with the Tau'ri to sour.

 

~*~*~*~


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

_**You didn't have to do that, you know** , _ he admonished as the shooting pain crawling all over his face and spots of light in his eyes subsided.

_**I had to see,** _ his symbiote murmured as she worked to heal him as best as she could, given the little amount of strength both of them had after being locked up in this cell for the past month.  **_I had to see what had driven Malek to pursue us with a ruthlessness that I had never seen any of the other operatives do._ **

Both host and symbiote were silent for a few long minutes as the trickling of water along with the faint, faraway sounds of people cheering filled the air. With control over his body again, he walked back to where he had been sitting and slid down. He then drew his legs up, resting his elbows on his knees before leaning his head against one of his hands. He couldn't help but wonder if after all that had happened, especially with what he and his symbiote had done, if he survived the next few days without his symbiote, would his friends ever forgive him?

There was no answer or reassuring comment from his symbiote as he felt the swelling from being rammed head-first into the bars, slowly mend and deflate. There was little he could do now, short of a full confession, to stop the execution. However, it needed to be done – there were still far too many minor enemies and distrust running amongst those who had fought against the Goa'uld. He could not trust the Tok'ra, who kept no secrets from within their community, from accidentally revealing the location that would save them all.

He was charged with his mission – a mission not borne of war, but borne from peace; and he was determined to complete it, no matter the consequences.

~◊~

_~4.7 years after the death of Ra..._

 

_**I was trying to be 'honorable' with my words, similar to what Jaffa have spoken like many a times,** _ Aldwin protested as he felt the none-too-gentle mental whacking that came from his symbiote.

_**No, you were just being stupid,** _ his symbiote replied, huffing.  _**The Jaffa, Teal'c of Chulak, has quite a unique mentality for his people. You already knew that he came back to ask for resources to mount a rescue before he even said a word.** _

As the two Tok'ra who flanked him peeled off, heading towards other sections of their underground home on Vorash, he mentally sighed and hurried towards the Council chambers. Yes, he had known that the Jaffa Teal'c would want to prioritize the rescue of his friends, and he, Aldwin, also wanted to ensure that Martouf and Jacob were also rescued, but...

The alliance between the Tau'ri and Tok'ra was unsteady at best, with mainly Jacob and Martouf being sent as representatives to the Tau'ri homeworld, due to their connections. Some minor level of technology had been exchanged, along with two new hosts for symbiotes who had been waiting for a host, but it seemed that the wrath of the system lords had exploded at least ten-fold. Tok'ra agents in the field were in more danger than ever, thanks to the SG teams, especially SG-1, and the Council was looking like they were start to regret ever making such an alliance. High Councilor Garshaw, who always seemed to voice her opinions that favored either Martouf or Jacob's ideas, had been asked to step down from her position only a few days ago. The Council was still deliberating as to who they would appoint as their next High Councilor, but there were rumors far and wide that they wanted someone more conservative, less likely to be as accommodating to the Tau'ri.

He wanted to give Teal'c the resources to go rescue his friends, wanted to help in assisting, wanted to get revenge on Sokar for the killing of his mate, but he knew that he could not just run off, steal something from the labs, and jump away. The last time he had done something similar was to try to rescue Lysana and Merin last year, and lady luck had only given him, Martouf, and Rosha the barest of kicks to escape with Malek. He needed to word the current request in a manner to the Council as carefully as possible to make it sound appealing so that a rescue could be disguised within it.

“Councilors,” he greeted in as neutral of a tone he could manage, as he walked into the chamber. They were expecting a report as to why no persons had descended from the cargo ship loitering above their underground home.

“Aldwin,” one of the Councilors answered in an expectant manner.

“Teal'c has returned from Netu with all haste, bearing news of Apophis' rise and rebellion upon the planet. SG-1 and Martouf were able to locate Jacob, but were unable to find a way out of Netu before Apophis caught them.”

“Apophis' rise from the dead was expected,” Ren'au said, folding her hands together and placed it on the table before her. “However, his rise to power on Netu and talks of a rebellion is concerning.”

“Yes, it is,” he agreed, nodding as an idea formed in his mind, which was amplified with the addition of his symbiote's thoughts. “Given Sokar's tendencies to want to bring pain and suffering upon his enemies, I believe that he will react to an organized rebellion on the planet.”

“He may indeed,” Garshaw said, giving him a sagely nod of her head, though Aldwin was not sure if he saw a twinkle in her eyes. “He will most likely take his mothership and rise from his homeworld to orbit around Netu. We do not have time to safely send an operative into the mothership to destroy the ship from inside out. Whether or not he will lance down pain upon the denizens of the planet is another matter all together. However, the bombardment will probably only crack open more fissures within the crust of the planet--”

“But should we send an explosive to rupture the core of the planet,” another Councilor finished for Garshaw, causing several of the members to look quite amenable to the idea. “We destroy not only Apophis on the surface, but also the Sokar, his mothership, and the orbital platforms.”

“But do we even have any sort of explosive to garner that type of chain reaction?” Ren'au asked.

And that was the sticky situation of the plan. Aldwin knew that they had ordinances that could take down the inside of a mothership once smuggled on, but like the Councilor who asked the question, he wondered if did they have anything that could blow up a planetoid? The Tau'ri had destroyed Ra's mothership via a well-placed and transported nuclear bomb, but the Tok'ra had neither the capability to build or means to acquire such a weapon on such short notice.

“I may have something,” Malek's voice spoke up from the far side of the chamber as he strode in. Aldwin took a few steps back to open the floor to his friend, wondering what he had in mind. Since their move to their new home on Vorash, he started to see a gradual thaw in the distant demeanor that Malek had put up for the past few months. The symbiote was more active, and generally much more open than he had been, but his host still had not said a word yet.

“My host and I,” Malek began, “have been developing a type of chemical explosive that utilizes liquified raw materials. We have a prototype in the works, but if you give me an hour, we may be able to modify it to react with the molten core of Netu.”

“Do so,” one of the Council members ordered, and others nodded.

Malek gave a curt nod, spun on his heels and walked out. Curious, Aldwin made to go after him, but it was Garshaw who stopped him, saying, “Please stay, Aldwin. We would like to discuss the steps with regards to what needs to be done to ensure that this mission does not end up with the escape of Sokar or of his fleet.”

He gave a nod and stepped back into the center spot that had just been vacated. However, as he clasped his hands behind his back, he asked, “What of Jacob or Martouf?”

In the past months that Jacob had become host to Selmak, Aldwin had grown used to the idiosyncrasies, ingenious new ideas, and very proactive ways that Jacob had brought to the Tok'ra. It seemed that the old man, who they had found out had been a commander of armed forces on the Tau'ri homeworld, had injected new life into Tok'ra operations. Though still cautious and quite well aware of the politics that governed how their operations were planned and carried out, he had listened to a few of the man's ideas and had been trying to implement the more defensive ones into the new crystals he and his team had been building.

The extensive limestone rocks that covered nearly eighty percent of Vorash's surface under vast layers of sand, had given them a lot of room to tunnel and test their way through several different types of new crystals. They could not grow measures to bait traps or prevent bombardments from collapsing parts of the tunnels around them yet, but they were slowly perfecting a faster way to collapse the tunnels and have crystals briefly regenerate their hold on the earth during a bombardment.

As for Martouf, Aldwin could see that though he still mourned the loss of Rosha and Jolinar, he had taken quite a shine towards SG-1 team member, Samantha Carter. She held the memories of both people that Martouf and Lantash loved, and thus Martouf held just as much enthusiasm in the alliance as Jacob did. Now though, two friends of Aldwin and the members of SG-1, save Teal'c, were prisoners of Sokar – could they sacrifice a few to save the millions?

_**If we have to, we can, Aldwin,** _ his symbiote said, pouring strength into him.  _**Sokar killed not only Lysana, but so many others, and now that he has become a clear threat, he cannot be allowed to kill millions of more. If you feel that you cannot strike, then let me do it.** _

“They knew the risks,” Ren'au stated, though her tone was not as cold as he thought it would have been.

_**This is war,** _ he stated not only to himself, but as an agreement with his symbiote. Yes rescuing friends had been his intended goal, but by the time they would reach Netu, he understood that it might be too late. Alliance with the Tau'ri or no, he knew that his duty was to ensure that the Goa'uld were defeated in any way possible.

~~~

It was a little less than an hour later, while pacing near the primary ring room, that Aldwin finally saw and heard Malek coming down the hall, carrying a medium-sized casing in his hands. He stopped his pacing, ignoring the feigned dizziness from his symbiote as a way to alleviate the nervousness and tension, and clasped his hands behind his back. Malek gently set the container to the side and gingerly opened it, revealing a glowing wash of a blue-purplish light that caused him to squint slightly.

“You need just only set this in one of the escape pod bays before launching it out,” Malek said. “Once it leaves, there is an automatic beacon which will activate after thirty seconds and home in on the nearest extreme heat source, which should be the moon. The container will be able to protect it when it enters the atmosphere, and upon break up, there is another heat sensor which will try to guide it towards an active volcanic region. Upon the breakdown of the materials that are in this spherical chamber, it will start a reaction on the most basic of elements and cause the core to violently erupt.”

“Is that naquadah I feel?” he asked puzzled that he was feeling something very strange emanating off of the device.

“Yes,” Malek replied, nodding. “It was the highest grade version we had here. I had to take it from Anise's project. My host thought it would add to the instability and accelerate the reaction process.”

“Ah,” he simply stated. If he was already nervous about the mission, this added to the mountain, especially since with one wrong bump or knock, the explosive power of raw, liquid high-grade naquadah would be quite devastating. Anise had had to receive special permission from the Council to even embark on her own project with the liquid naquadah...which was now being absconded with. Combined with whatever else Malek had added into this...contraption... it was a miracle that Vorash had not suffered a cataclysmic crumbling yet.

“It is safe to carry,” Malek said, as he looked up to see his friend with quite an innocent look on his face, before he noticed the slight crinkle of a smile in his eyes. “My host has a strange sense of humor and states to just not vigorously shake it.”

“I won't,” he stated, though he could help but agree that Malek's host had a very strange sense of humor.

The smile disappeared from Malek's eyes as he said in a serious tone, “Aldwin, I added several layers to the shell of the device. I believe that it should give you about twelve minutes before Netu explodes.”

“Twelve minutes for Martouf, Jacob, and the SG-1 team to find a way off then,” he stated, silently sighing.

“It was all I could do. I did not have any other materials at hand to delay it.”

“Thank you, Malek. Truly,” he said, clapping Malek on the arm before reaching over and closed the lid of the box. Taking the box, he walked over to where the rings would descend and prepared himself. Turning back so that he faced his friend before the rings descended, he said, “If it were Lysana were on Netu, she would have asked for no more time than you have given them, Malek. I'll do what I can, but I am charged with my mission.”

“I know and best of luck,” he heard Malek reply just as the rings descended and whisked him away.

~◊~

As soon as the chappa'ai disappeared, the two of them turned from it and began walking back to where the rings would take them back underground. SG-1 was safely returned to their homeworld, and opting to spend some time with his daughter, Jacob had left with them. The mission to Netu had been a success, and they had eliminated Apophis, Sokar, and Sokar's mothership. Now, without clear leadership, there would be plenty of squabbles among the vassals that had been pledging their allegiance to Sokar. The fleet that had been Sokar's would be torn apart, and they, the Tok'ra would be able to easily infiltrate and take them down piece by piece.

“Why has your symbiote not yet repaired the bruising you sustained?” he heard Martouf ask as they approached the location where the rings were.

Aldwin gave a half-smile as his symbiote suddenly listed adjectives to describe his stupidity and lack of faith in Teal'c's ability to rescue his friends. “My symbiote,” he began, as they stopped and allowed the rings to envelope them and send them back down. As soon as they materialized and stepped out of the path, he continued, saying, “thinks that I'm an idiot, and thus has left this bruise to heal naturally on its own. It's supposed to remind me to have some more faith in not only you, but also the ingenuity of the Tau'ri.”

He heard Martouf laugh, a rich and full sound, and realized that it had been quite a long time since he had even heard his friend laugh. Too much had happened in the past year, and there had not been much to celebrate or smile about, until now. That brought a full smile to his face and as the two of them stepped into the main hall, footsteps ran up to them.

“Martouf! Aldwin!” Freya said as she stopped and suddenly embraced both of them. “You're both alive,” she whispered in their ears before letting them go and stepped back, grinning from ear to ear. However, that smile slid into one of confusion as she looked behind them and asked, “Where is Jacob and SG-1?”

“Ah,” Martouf said, “they are alive as well and have decided to return to their homeworld as soon as we arrived. Jacob is with them, wanting to spend some time with Samantha before he returned here. However, I do have the information that Jacob has acquired for the Council.”

“So, did it work?” the voice of Malek called out to them as Aldwin saw him approach as soon as he rounded a bend in the hall.

“Yes,” he said, nodding. “According to the sensors, the moon exploded and took out Sokar's ship with it.”

“Apophis, having also been a prisoner of Sokar, is dead too,” Martouf said. “He had been transported up to Sokar's ship to attempt to most likely present false information to Sokar and was also caught in the explosion. It was very fortuitous timing that Aldwin and Teal'c arrived with the cargo ship and launched the weapon when they did.”

“Good,” Malek said, with a satisfied look on his face. Aldwin could see that he wanted to say something else with regards to the weapon, but decided not to. He supposed that it was for the better, for Martouf, Jacob, and SG-1 were not even supposed to have had twelve minutes to escape.

“You're injured, Aldwin,” Freya said, reaching out towards him, to which he took a half-step back.

“It's nothing,” he answered, ignoring the ribbing smile that Martouf had shot him. “My symbiote thinks of it as an apt punishment for my lack of faith in the others to escape.”

“I have to agree with that assessment,” Malek quipped, giving him a mild look, to which he also ignored.

“Come, Aldwin,” Martouf interrupted, even though the smug smile was still on his face. “The Council awaits, and the good news about Sokar and Apophis should be spread amongst all of us.” To Malek and Freya, he said, “We'll join both of you for evening meal later.”

As his friends gave them nods, Aldwin mentally sighed and followed Martouf towards the Council chamber. He knew that he should have had more faith in his friends, but it had been the memory of Lysana's capture that had driven him to launch the weapon into the moon. Now though, with the murderer of his mate quite dead, he found that a burden had seemingly been lifted from his shoulders. They had scored a decisive victory against the system lords, and with a lighter heart, he found himself looking forward to possibly further assisting the Tau'ri with their future endeavors against the Goa'uld.

 

**~*~*~*~**

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 4**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

Frustration and anger from his host bled through their bond, and though he tried to calm his host as much as possible, he knew that there was only so much he could do. After all, both of them were still feeling the effects of what had happened a little over a month ago. Neither of them had healed from the revelation, and he knew that they would not until the Goa'uld system lord, Leto, was dead.

“Malek,” one the two guardsmen who stood down here at the end of the long hall of cells greeted as he approached.

“Jerek,” he replied, inclining his head slightly as he turned slightly to see Freya catch up. Returning his attention to the guardsman, he continued, saying, “Ba'al is dead. Are they ready to receive the next prisoner and execute Leto?”

“Unfortunately,” the guardsman began, “Leto is not the next one. Per'sus has called for Tanith's execution.”

He thinned his lips in anger, not only because he and his host had been stymied for the moment, but also for all the atrocities that Tanith had committed after he had fled Vorash. Years ago, word from the Tau'ri had told them of the possibility of Tanith's demise above Tollana. He remembered that a scout ship had been sent to the system and had reported debris ringed around the planet. Tollana had been rendered barren and devoid of life because the Tollans had unleashed of all the thermonuclear weapons they had created under duress. The Tok'ra had thought with confidence that Tanith was quite dead, only to have him rise up again during the midst of Anubis's rampage. The only saving grace was that Tanith had also fought against Ba'al for control over Goa'uld resources after Anubis had died.

Tanith had been captured by another team five months before Ba'al had been captured, but now today, all three: Ba'al, Leto, and Tanith, would be executed. There was just the matter of the order of execution, and he, Malek, wanted Leto to be next. But alas, it was not to be.

“Then we shall patiently wait, Jerek,” Anise answered, taking Malek by the arm and guided him away.

He allowed himself to be led away by her, knowing that she too, had a stake in this and knowing that it had been selfish of both him and his host to think that they were the only ones affected by Leto. Anise and Freya had had the additional burden of Tanith weighing on their minds for a very long time, and now, they were going to receive a small peace of mind from the execution.

He forced himself to be patient – they had waited a long time for this day to come, and there was no way their prisoner was going to escape. They would be able to wait some more and take some comfort in knowing that once the day was over, peace would finally be achieved.

~◊~

_~5.1 years after the death of Ra..._

 

It was in the meal hall that the three of them finally cornered Anise, or rather, Freya, who was reading notes from the device that had recorded the results of her experiment on the Tau'ri. Though she had control over her body, she was not truly reading the notes, and instead, was just scanning her eyes over the jotted words and data, letting Anise ponder over the results. She instead, was copying over a few ideas to her notebook while sipping a nice, comforting and warm beverage.

“How was your trip to the Tau'ri homeworld?”

She looked up from her writing to see Martouf sitting down before her, with a cup of the same beverage she was sipping. Aldwin had also followed him and sat to the right of him. Malek, carrying a half-full glass that was supposed to be used with chemicals, sat to the other side of Martouf. The smell from the glass was not as noxious or pungent as the first time she had seen Malek drinking it, but it was still lingering in the air.

“Your host is complaining again?” she asked, briefly ignoring the question and gave a pointed look at Malek.

“It seems to me that he likes to kill his own brain cells from time to time as recreation,” Malek dryly stated. “I indulge when I can no longer tolerate his whining.”

Freya opened her mouth to say something in regards to Malek's host being quite idiotic, but found that she was at a loss of words. Both Aldwin and Martouf were giving Malek strange looks, but neither said a word. Shaking her head slightly, she returned her attention to Martouf, saying, “I had a lovely time on the Tau'ri homeworld. Anise...not so much.”

“I presume that they thought Anise had deceived them with the Atanik bracers and the intelligence on Apophis' new mothership?” Martouf asked, looking slightly guilty.

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “However, after a short deliberation, they undertook the mission and successfully destroyed the ship using the armbands as augmentative weapons.”

“That's wonderful news!” Aldwin exclaimed, and she couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. Victories had been far and few since they had started their resistance, but in the past year-and-a-half since the beginning of their alliance with the Tau'ri, victory seemed to have bloomed ten-fold. Though there were quite a few Tok'ra still in doubts over the alliance and the great risks that it carried for their operatives, many of them were relishing in the fact that finally, as Colonel O'Neill so fondly put it, 'kicking Goa'uld ass.'.

“But they do not trust Anise's word now,” Malek quietly said, putting a damper on the high spirits around the table.

Freya sighed, saying, “No, I'm afraid they do not trust her word anymore. She was a bit...too clinical, I think.”

_**I was not! I did my best to protest the connection. It is not their fault that they do not trust the word of an ally,**_ she heard her symbiote complain.

_**Hush,**_ she said, sending soothing and peaceful thoughts to her symbiote, trying to sate her annoyance at the lack of open trust between them and the Tau'ri. _**They do not understand how many years we have been fighting. Their way is brash, irrational, short term. Ours is rational, to ensure maximum impact in the long term future. They live for the moment, for their lives are only half of ours.**_

“I apologize then,” Martouf said, bowing his head slightly. “I did not mean to ruin both of your first experience with the Tau'ri people.”

She smiled, saying, “The experience was not entirely marred by the report, Martouf. In fact, had it not come, then Anise would have run out of tests for SG-1 to perform.”

There was a moment of silence between the four friends before it was Malek who broke it by saying, “You have found someone there to your liking, have you not, Freya?”

There was a small smile on Malek's face as Freya watched him smugly sip the noxious clear liquid in the glass. “Yes,” she simply confirmed. It had been a long on-going game between the symbiotes, Anise and Malek, whenever they tried to guess a personal secret from each other that had never been divulged. Given her extensive knowledge of cultures, neither she or her symbiote still could not figure out where Malek's host was from. It had annoyed Anise and amused her, Freya, to no end.

Still, it was not as frustrating when she compared it to the Tau'ri and their attitudes. Before she had been sent on this mission, Jacob had given her a small history on the cultural attitudes of some of the Tau'ri, and she had been very surprised at just how many self-imposed inhibitions they had put on themselves. Despite living for a little less than half of a Tok'ra's lifespan and the amount of infighting that Jacob had described for the Tau'ri people to have gone through since being broken from the shackles of Ra, they did not spend their lives in full enjoyment of all it had to offer. Curious and wanting to ask more, it had been Anise who had reigned her curiosity back, and thus Anise had taken the lead on this experiment.

“I will inform Jacob then that perhaps next time, you should go instead of me,” Martouf said, smiling, though she could see laughter in his eyes.

“I couldn't, Martouf,” she protested, shaking her head slightly. “Both you and Jacob have the best relations with the Tau'ri. They... they already have trouble discerning between Anise and I, since my first impression was not as good as I had hoped it would be.”

“Mine was even worse,” Aldwin quipped, shrugging slightly as he reached over and plucked the inert Atanik bracer that was sitting by another notebook, and examined it briefly. “Given your extensive knowledge on several artifacts that Dr. Jackson probably has not even seen yet, I'm sure they'll give you a second chance.”

Giving her friends a smile, grateful for their support and reassurance that she did not fully ruin relations between Tau'ri and Tok'ra, she turned her attention to Malek and asked, “And what of you, Malek? Do you or your host feel like ever visiting the Tau'ri?”

“No,” came the oddly curt reply.

Awkward silence fell over the four of them as the sounds of others eating or conversing in the hall filtered through. Fortunately, that silence was broken as Freya saw Jorin jog into the hall and spot whoever he needed for the moment at their table. Coming over, he said, “I apologize for disturbing all of you, but we need Malek's expertise in the chemical labs...and that glass that he currently has.”

With a slightly exaggerated sigh that did not belay any sort of anger or tension that had been hanging around him earlier, Malek got up and gave a nod towards the rest of them before leaving. A moment later, Martouf also rose, saying, “I have my own duties to attend to, but I am glad that you enjoyed yourself on the Tau'ri homeworld. Whenever I see them next, I will be sure to try to smooth things out so that you may return with a better impression than you left.”

“Thank you, Martouf,” she said smiling.

As soon as Martouf left, Aldwin gave her a half-shrug, saying, “I'm off duty right now, in both the labs and on patrol above ground.”

“But I thought you usually worked on some new-fangled experiment with the crystals during your time off,” she said, taking a sip of her beverage.

“Well, I actually had some questions about the Atanik bracer that you're currently researching,” he said, tapping the wrist end of the bracer on the table. “I was reading over some your notes when you were on the Tau'ri homeworld and I noticed that there was a power crystal embedded within the bracer. How long did the effects of the bracer last?”

“About a day or two, “ Anise replied, as Freya let her take over to present the research. “It is also dependent on the user. Dr. Jackson and Major Carter both put their bracers on at the same time, about half a day after Colonel O'Neill did. However, Dr. Jackson's bracer was the first to fall. It was soon followed by Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill's bracers. Given the physical shape of the members of SG-1, it is safe for me to say that civilians such as Dr. Jackson would not be in as good of a physical shape as Major Carter or Colonel O'Neill. Colonel O'Neill was the best one out of all of them, since he had the bracer the longest.”

“Did anything abnormal happen to them?” Aldwin asked, plucking at the bracer's power crystal.

“Apart from a great increase in appetite, and a slight fever due to the bracers' reaction to their physiology, no. I determined that the bracer was only a mechanism to deliver a virus or toxin into their bodies for a given amount of time before the antidote, also contained within the bracer, was released. There were most likely two separate, but reinforced chambers built within the bracer to keep the toxin and antidote from interacting with each other.”

“The Council has yet to be briefed, but Ailin was telling me yesterday that she and Ren'au may have an idea that would wipe out the system lords in one fell swoop,” Aldwin said, placing the bracer down on the table.

“It involves the bracer?” she asked, puzzled. “If you read our notes, then you know that the Atanik bracer does not work on anyone with a symbiote.”

“Ah, not the bracer,” he clarified. “The power crystal and the reinforced chambers within the bracers. The solution is still a long ways off and may not even be achievable, but the other situation we need to fall in perfectly is a meeting of the system lords. However, with Apophis risen again and with his enormous fleet, Ailin's idea may not even come to fruition.”

She gave a small sigh as she nodded. Even though the mission to Netu was a success, they had not accounted for the fact that Apophis had successfully escaped and now, he had enough power to threaten the existence of the Tok'ra again. There had been several operatives stuck not only in rival Goa'uld fleets and planets, but also on various planets that Apophis had taken over. With what little information they could retrieve from burst transmissions, they could not even fully plan out how to at least cause the system lords to gather into a haphazard alliance and fight against Apophis.

“At least Apophis' new mothership was destroyed,” she stated.

“Yes,” Aldwin agreed, “we have that much to be thankful for.”

~◊~

_~5.2 years after the death of Ra..._

 

Anise removed the floor-length shawl as soon as the rings disappeared, spreading a light dusting of sand onto the ground. As she stepped away from the escorts, she folded and draped the shawl on one of her arms and calmly walking without a hurry further into the tunnels. It was vital that they maintained standard operations within the base, now that they had a known spy in their midst. All operatives who had not been on Vorash when the decision had been made to allow Tanith to continue living in their midst were slowly and securely being informed.

It was a regret that the priestess did not live, but it had confirmed the Council of their suspicions with regards to the Jaffa and their premature symbiotes. Still, both Anise and Freya had been surprised that their idea for manipulating this spy had been readily accepted by the Council. Now, though, both she and her host were well aware of their own responsibility for Tanith. They had brought the devil to their community's doorstep and allowed him in – they needed to be vigilant in ensuring Tanith's access to information was tightly controlled.

“What are your plans for Tanith, Anise?” Malek demanded as he suddenly appeared from an adjacent hall as she passed a rather large intersection within their tunnels.

“To sow as much misinformation as possible within the ranks of the Goa'uld,” she simply replied, continuing to walk towards her destination.

“How do you plan to accomplish that?”

She immediately stopped walking and forcibly grabbed Malek by the hand, dragging him into the nearest empty niche. The tone, the accusation, the demands that went unspoken in his two questions had given her a very good inkling as to the indirect question he was asking. Letting go of his hand, she stared up at him, anger from both her and her host clearly showing in her eyes. She was not a child, and she certainly did not need to be coddled. She may not have been in the field for a few decades, but she still had her wits about her.

“My host may have different inhibitions with regards to physical intimacy, but know this, Malek – I will never, ever put my host in harm's way, even if it is to spread misinformation to an enemy spy. There are other ways to control the spy.”

She knew that Malek had used plenty of seduction techniques to gather information before, but she was quite incensed that her friend had thought that it was the only option available to ensure that Tanith did not compromise any actual operation they launched. She had thought that perhaps Malek had reformed or at least understood that there were other ways to get or spread information, especially when his host had been Lysana. As far as she knew, Lysana had been utterly faithful to Aldwin before she had died.

“You misunderstand me, Anise,” Malek said, the corner of his eyes softening slightly in apology. “Tanith's eyes roam for information, but when they roam over you, there are a lot of ill intentions behind it. Aldwin has observed this on more than two occasions of it happening. I have also seen it myself. Both he and I will be sent out missions soon and when we are not here, we want you to be careful.”

Touched by her friends' concern, she was silent for a very long moment before Freya managed to soothe her enough for her to regain her composure. “I will take both of your concerns to heart. Rest assure, Malek, that I will not fall prey to Tanith's attempts to manipulate me,” she said, the anger she had initially felt for her friend's implied accusation, leaving her. “Do you have any advice?”

“Never be alone in a room with him,” was all he said. “I know that you do not like to carry a zat'nik'tel, but perhaps a crystal carving blade would be more preferable. He is taller and even though he does not look it, he carries himself as a warrior. He will be able to easily overpower you, as he has most likely done to the priestess.”

“My host does not like any weapons, but in this situation, she understands the need for one,” she answered, sending thoughts of reassurances towards her host. After a moment's pause, she said, “Very well, from this day forward and until Tanith no longer lives, we shall carry a blade.”

“Aldwin has a spare one that he said he will be able to lend to you,” Malek said, guiding her gently back out into the halls. “Let us find him.”

Their feet carried them through halls that looked familiar with each turn, but to those living here, each one was not quite the same, and she knew that they were headed towards the engineering labs. It was a spot that both she and Malek were familiar with, having found Aldwin within the labs in most of the times that they looked for him, whether it was to ask him join them for a meal or to retrieve him for a briefing. It was a slight surprise, though, when they ran into him outside of the labs, his expression that of a cross between frustration and annoyance.

“Aldwin?” Malek questioned as soon as they stopped, stepping to the side to allow others to get by.

“Malek. Anise,” Aldwin stated, as his expression was smoothed out to a more familiar-looking one – that of polite curiosity.

“Tanith?” Malek guessed.

“You could say that,” Aldwin evasively replied. “But regardless, our orders have come in, Malek. We leave immediately.”

“Ah,” was all Malek said in acknowledgment. “The blade?”

“Here,” Aldwin said, reaching to where his zat'nik'tel sat by his hip and unbuckled something small from the back of the holster before handing the item to her.

Anise gingerly took the sheathed blade and strapped it to her waist belt, giving both of her friends a grateful nod. Her host had come from a very large family of brothers and sisters and had seen them killed before her eyes. Anise had wanted to give her host a semblance of a new family with the Tok'ra – to give her something more than revenge to live for. Aldwin, Lysana, Rosha, and Martouf had become her host's new family, her host's new brothers and sisters. Lysana's death had devastated her host, but the fact that Malek had maintained the ties that bound them together eased Freya's pain. Rosha and Jolinar were another loss that had affected both her and Freya, but to see Martouf stay strong and even reach out to Jolinar's last host had given them comfort.

Now, with the acceleration of what seemed like pure chaos in the Tok'ra's endless war against the system lords, she could feel Freya cling onto her 'family' more than ever. Freya's determination to live, to survive, and to keep everyone she loved alive, had bled into her, and she knew that it had influenced her decision to take this drastic action and propose Tanith's inclusion into the Tok'ra ranks. She desperately hoped that it was a decision that none of them would regret.

“Thank you,” she said, looking up at both of them, her eyes silently pleading for their safe return from whatever mission they were being sent on. “Please, be careful... both of you, and come home safe.”

~◊~

_~5.4 years after the death of Ra..._

 

_What about Martouf?_

_**Freya!** _

The sounds of the transport rings ascending up from the sandy ground, the light winds of Vorash echoing through the air, even her symbiote's voice continuously calling out her name, were barely heard by her, as she looked out and across the wasteland. Instead, it was Major Carter's question that kept playing over and over in her mind, tormenting her. Tears blurred her eyes, but they were unshed as she held on tightly to her part of the stretcher, bearing the body of Martouf.

Three of Per'sus' entourage, were stationed on the other corners of the stretcher. Per'sus and the remaining security members were arrayed to the back and front of where they stood. As solid ground touched their feet again, she saw the familiar hues of the crystalline halls around her, but the coldness of the Tau'ri stretcher had most of her attention.

They had made her wait; Per'sus and the others, until negotiations had been completed with the Tau'ri. Per'sus had refused to let her take Martouf's body back through the chappa'ai and had made her wait, with Martouf's body, in the icy-cold storage room in the infirmary. Initially, she had just sat there, looking quite forlornly at her friend's body, her mind completely numb as she heard the keen wailing of her symbiote's mourning song playing in her head. However, Major Carter had appeared and had asked her permission to clean Martouf's body – to get it ready for a proper burial.

She had wanted to protest the action, wanted to tell Major Carter that it was not their way to even touch the dead bodies of their own, except to bring it up for consumption by the explosion of a just-activated chappa'ai, but Anise had told her to let it go. Grief was etched upon Major Carter's face, and it was then that she realized just how deeply the Tau'ri woman had cared for Martouf. Out of compassion, Major Carter had stopped him before he could detonate the small explosive embedded within his weapon.

In deference to the mercy that Major Carter had shown Martouf, she had helped the Tau'ri woman clean the gunshot wounds from Martouf's body. They had also cleaned the clothes of blood stain, though the holes could not be patched. It had given her some comfort, but it was not enough to completely numb the pain of losing another member of her family.

_**Freya!** _

Like a cold dousing of water upon her, the shouts from her symbiote finally broke through the fog as she found herself gently led to the side by one of Per'sus' security team. That same Tok'ra had taken her spot on the stretcher and a moment later, they bore it away. “No!” she shouted, rushing forward, but found herself being blocked by someone who had stepped up to stop her. Martouf was dead and she could have stopped it. Her friend was dead because she did not think; did not have the foresight to screen him. Martouf was dead because she could not help him or cure him. Her hands curled into fists as she blindly hit the person stopping her from following, tears falling from her eyes. It was her fault...it was all her fault.

Her denial was repeated over and over again as she collapsed onto her knees, with the person who had stopped her also sinking down to the ground. Warm arms embraced her and held her close as she felt herself being rocked slightly, soothing words from both her symbiote and whoever was holding her being whispered to her. It was the commanding voice of Per'sus, though that finally drove her out of her overwhelming sorrow, and caused her to come back to herself.

“I want all operatives who have been out on missions for the past two-and-a-half months to be detained and prepared for questioning with the za'tarc detector,” the High Councilor ordered. “We will start with the operative who rescued Lantash and Martouf.”

As she blinked away her tears, she became aware of numerous zat'nik'tels being drawn and activated. Looking up, she saw the weapons being pointed at yet another member of her 'family'. Standing a bit ways away, she saw that Malek was warily looking around at the weapons being pointed at him and had his arms spread out in a gesture that spoke of surrender. Freya knew then that there was the potential that she could lose yet another person she cared about today.

“Freya,” Aldwin's soothing voice said from beside her as she realized that it had been him who had stopped her from following those bearing Martouf away. He had wordlessly held her as she had taken out her frustration and anger on him, for her own lack of action to prevent Martouf's death. And now, he still held onto her, to keep her from doing anything rash against Per'sus' words.

“Those orders also extend to you, Aldwin,” she heard Per'sus say, and realized that not only were weapons pointed at Malek, a few of them were pointed at both her and Aldwin. “Your assistance in the extraction of Helene from Yu's territory may have been completed with no complications, but it does not exclude her or you from questioning. Step away.”

Slowly, Freya felt Aldwin unwrap his protective arms from around her and shuffled slightly on the floor before standing up. She saw him raise his hands in the air, and a moment later, the sentinels who had surrounded not only Malek and Aldwin, but at least two other operatives, march all four of them away. Left alone with Per'sus, she sought strength through her symbiote and composed herself before rising off of the floor.

“I ask that Anise take charge in the questioning,” Per'sus said, though he did not demand it. “The current fragility of your temperament, Freya, is something that we cannot have.”

Grateful for the intervention, she allowed her symbiote to take over as she heard her symbiote say, “It will be done, High Councilor.”

~~~

By the time all operatives had been screened, it had been over five hours since she and her host had returned from the Tau'ri homeworld. Exhaustion from what had happened, along with grief still overwhelming her, Freya had fallen asleep in the middle of the questioning, leaving Anise by herself. Not one other za'tarc had been found amongst all the operatives, and even though she wanted to tell her host the good news, she decided to wait – her host had been through too much today and she did not want to disturb her.

The loss of Martouf and Lantash had hit both of them hard, but with so many years of fighting, of seeing friends die, she wondered if she was starting to become immune to loosing friends, for the sorrow she had felt had not been as deep as she thought it would have been. The only consoling thought she could give herself in this numbness she felt was the fact that Martouf and Rosha were now reunited forever in the afterlife.

“Anise?”

She looked up from packing away the pieces of the za'tarc detector and saw Malek standing at the entrance to the chamber. Placing the rest of the material into the casing, she closed it and walked around the table. “My host is currently asleep,” she said, stopping before him. “And though I myself do not feel like taking in any food, we do need the nourishment.”

“May I join you then?” he politely asked.

“Please,” she said, grateful for the company, for she did not want to eat alone. She needed the company right now to keep her thoughts from straying to today's events, and to keep herself from accidentally spilling her thoughts into the dreamless sleep that her host was currently in.

“Perhaps Aldwin would also like to join us,” Malek said as they wound their way through the halls. All of those they passed had a degree of sadness about them, for Martouf and Lantash had been dearly loved and admired by everyone. The loss of not only a friend, but one of their best operatives was being keenly felt.

She nodded and together, the two of them headed towards the engineering labs. However, as they approached, they heard an explosive shout from one of the labs, with the voice yelling, “Absolutely not!”

The voice belonged to Aldwin and surprised at just how enraged he sounded, for she had never heard him raise his voice in anger before, she hurried towards the lab, with Malek following closely behind her. She stopped at the entrance as she saw exactly who were in the lab, and felt Malek lay a protective hand on her shoulder as he too, peeked into the lab.

Near the far end of the lab was a device that had the barest of structural housing built around it. The structure was only reinforced with several reflective panels of an unknown material and a very complex configuration of several crystals arrayed around it. Standing near the middle of the room was Aldwin, and it looked like he was arguing with Zuzana and Tanith. Zuzana looked every bit surprised at the uncharacteristic and furious outburst that Aldwin had put forth, while Tanith merely looked quite calm and composed, as if it were all quite amusing to him.

“It is not a request, Aldwin,” Tanith calmly said, “it is an order from the High Council.”

“It's not even ready yet,” she heard Aldwin snarl, eyes ablaze with fury. “I'd rather have Martouf and Lantash claimed by the chappa'ai than to attempt an extraction.”

“Your opinions--”

“Get out, Tanith.”

Anise found herself taking a step back in fear as she saw Aldwin's eyes briefly glow with the words that his symbiote had just spat out in an acidic manner. It was very rare that she had seen or heard Aldwin's symbiote take control or say anything, and when the symbiote did, there was always a grave or great reason it did. She didn't know Aldwin's symbiote name, much like she didn't know Malek's host's name, but she did have a very healthy respect for Aldwin's symbiote. The last time the symbiote had shown itself had been over four hundred years ago, and it had been only to stop the bickering amongst the Council with regards to a vital mission to stop Nirrti.

It seemed that Tanith had also been affected for he looked slightly shaken before regaining his composure and merely spun around and walked away. Anise felt Malek's grip on her shoulder as Tanith passed them, but the pressure eased when the Goa'uld spy disappeared down the hall.

“Zuzana,” Aldwin said, his anger abating, though she could hear defeat color his tone. “Please inform the Council that I will have the prototype ready in a few hours. Please also let them know that it may not even work.”

Both she and Malek stepped in as Zuzana nodded and left, and she felt a fresh wave of despair wash over her as Aldwin turned towards them with a sad smile on his face. “What is happening?” she asked, almost afraid of the answer she would be given.

Aldwin sighed and looked towards the contraption near the back of the chamber as he said, “Healers have managed to bring Lantash back from the brink of death, though they could not revive Martouf. The Council wants to utilize the Tollan symbiote extractor that I have been trying to improve upon to remove Lantash from Martouf.”

“Will they not let them rest in peace?!” Malek said, incredulous and almost just as angry as Aldwin had been earlier.

Her own patience was wearing thin, and with what had happened today, she could feel her own anger also rising. However, she kept her calm, as she felt Freya stir slightly, and dampened her emotions. She did not want to continue to disturb her host's sleep. “Is there no other way to convince the Council of their folly?” she questioned. It was both her and Freya who had initially proposed that examining the mind of a za'tarc would have been useful. However, after Martouf had died, she had reconsidered the thought, sickened by the fact that it might be her, examining a friend's dead body; but now it was too late.

“I see no way,” Aldwin answered with a slight shake of his head. “The Council has seen the benefits of the possibility towards examining the brain of Martouf to better detect and neutralize future za'tarcs. I fear that they will not back down on this.”

“Then I hope the benefits are worth it,” she bitterly said.

“I hope so too.”

~◊~

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

Heavy footsteps of the guard woke both him and his symbiote from their light dozing as he looked up to see several guards approach. Preparing himself as best as he could, both mentally and physically, he blinked several times in surprise as the guards passed and paid him no heed.

**_Odd,_** he heard his symbiote whisper, just as curious as he was as to why they had not been retrieved for execution. Ba'al was already dead and as far as they knew, there had been no other prisoner in the cells besides him and the former Supreme System Lord. As the guards footsteps faded, but did not quite dissappear, he heard the faint sounds of a cell's locks turning and a moment later, heard the murmur of the guards dragging a body out.

His curiosity was rewarded a few minutes later as he saw the guards pass, half-dragging a barely lucid and quite drugged-looking prisoner. He received a glimpse of the prisoner's face and shock coursed through both him and his symbiote. The prisoner the guards were dragging away was none other than Tanith. Several months prior to their Leto's surrender to the hands of the Tok'ra, they had received word that Tanith, risen from the dead and 'immortal' enemy of Ba'al after Anubis' demise, had been killed.

Apparently the reports had been wrong, but to see an enemy of theirs so drugged up was quite a surprise. It meant that Tanith had certainly tried to kill himself and his host before today; otherwise, the Tok'ra would not have kept him almost in a constant state of near-sleep. Tanith meant to deny the freedom of his host, even after defeat.

Aldwin felt the edges of his lips curl up in a grim smile of satisfaction, with his symbiote agreeing in assessment of the situation. Though their own execution had been stayed for only a few more minutes, it was quite pleasing to both of them to see that Tanith would be the one to die first instead of Leto – neither of them ever liked the Goa'uld, even when they had been working in Ba'al's service.

_**What goes around, comes around?** _

_**In the ever immortal words of the Tau'ri, O'Neill: karma's a bitch,**_ his symbiote said, as they shared one final laughter together.

 

~*~*~*~


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter contains a mild torture scene. Reader discretion is advised.

**Chapter 5**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

Daniel watched with some interest as Vala and two other Tok'ra led man who had been Ba'al's host for thousands of years, away towards a more private area. As impersonal as Vala's announcement to the rest of them were, he knew that it was otherwise. The man, finally freed from the evil that had lived in his head for so long, was going to need a familiar face to hopefully begin an attempt to recover. It would take time, but Daniel knew that Vala could be patient when she needed to be.

He had initially thought that the execution of the final Goa'uld had been done and dealt with when Per'sus had announced a second execution would be taking place. None of the members of SG-1, save Vala, were sure that they were allowed to stay, since their invitation had only stated that they were invited to attend to the execution of the final Supreme System Lord, Ba'al. However, with the announcement that the next Goa'uld to be executed was Tanith, Teal'c immediately took a keen interest and thus, they stayed.

Daniel had thought that the Goa'uld had died somewhere within the war against Anubis and eventually with the Ori invasion, but it seemed it had not been so. Teal'c had also been permitted by the Tok'ra to push the button to activate the extractor, to which there had been an immensely satisfied look on his face when the extraction happened. Now though, even with another pair of Tok'ra assisting and examining Tanith's former host, the Tok'ra had not dispersed yet. Was there yet another prisoner about to be executed? If so, he was not keen on staying for another one. To him, justice had already been served, and to continuously watch execution after execution was going to make him ill.

“Daniel, let's go,” Jack called out to him quite impatiently. “They probably have a lot more minor snakes down below to execute than we care about. I have a turkey to prepare, and if its not in the oven by thirteen hundred, there's going to be hungry teammates squabbling over the lack of dinner.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” he said, and turned from his observations of the crowd to catch up with his teammates.

“Dr. Jackson,” the dulcet, reverberating tones of a Tok'ra that none of the members of SG-1 recognized, called out to him, causing them to stop and turn slightly from making their way out.

“Yes?” he asked, as the Tok'ra stopped before them, giving a slight bow of her head in acknowledgment and greeting.

“If you would please stay, we have need of your expertise in a certain matter,” the Tok'ra cryptically said.

Daniel glanced over at his teammates, to which he saw Sam shrug, Teal'c and Cam giving him a mild look, while Jack merely shook his head in slight exasperation. Even after all these years, Jack still did not fully trust the Tok'ra, and Daniel did not blame him. However, he was curious as to why the Tok'ra needed his help, when it had mostly been Sam's memories or expertise that they utilized. What help could an archeologist give besides translations of some sort?

“Sure,” he said, returning his attention to the Tok'ra.

“We'll see you later then, Daniel,” Jack said. “Just make sure you and Vala don't miss dinner. We don't have enough turkey or ham to bring and share with these guys.”

“Yep,” he answered, shaking his head slightly, as Jack gave a jaunty wave to the Tok'ra and left with the rest of SG-1. Returning his full attention to the Tok'ra, he saw her raise an eyebrow at the departing members before beckoning him to follow her. They wound their way around small knots of Tok'ra, who were murmuring to each other, but with their low tones, he could not quite pick out what they were discussing. It seemed only the Tok'ra assisting with Ba'al's and Tanith's former hosts, along with Vala had left. “Pardon me,” he politely asked, “but how may more hosts do you plan on extracting?”

“Just only one more,” his guide promptly answered. “We believe that this particular host was forced to undergo a type of modified sarcophagus many times during possession, and may be suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms once we extract the Goa'uld from him. Judging from how the sarcophagus was modified, we think that the symptoms may be greater than those inflicted upon Ba'al's former host. Since you have survived withdrawal symptoms before, we need your expertise in trying to diagnose the host after extraction.”

Daniel blinked in surprise as he said, “Um...I can try, but honestly, I don't know how much help I'll be.”

His Tok'ra guide said nothing except to leave him near the pillar that the next prisoner was going to be strapped to. He was curious though, as to who else they had captured besides Ba'al and Tanith. As far as he and the rest of SG-1 were concerned with and knew about, all other system lords who they had direct aggressions against were dead.

Minutes seemed to tick by, but at long last, a quiet settled upon the Tok'ra gathered, and Daniel could hear the faint clinks of a prisoner being escorted to the hall. Moments later, he saw the far side of the crowd of Tok'ra move away, until a clear column formed to give the prisoner a path towards the extractor. “Oh my God,” he whispered, as he saw exactly who it was, walking towards the device, clapped in iron chains.

“Not all Tok'ra symbiotes were affected by the poison released on Revanna that day,” Garshaw rumbled from beside him as Daniel managed to tear his eyes away from the procession and glance over at the woman. “By our count, we believe that twelve of our own who had died on Revanna had been revived via sarcophagus, including Aldwin. We think that at least Aldwin and another of our operatives, Taelon, both had their symbiotes forcibly removed and implanted with Goa'uld. The other ten Tok'ra may have had regained enough sanity to kill themselves along with their hosts before they could be used in the same manner.”

“Who are the Goa'uld controlling them?” he asked, as a Tok'ra he didn't recognize forcefully held their prisoner in place while another unshackled the iron chains. Even though a nasty, purplish bruise covered half of his face, there was still a haughty, prideful look on Aldwin's expression – a far cry from the usually politely curious expression he remembered that the Tok'ra carried.

“We do not know the name of the Goa'uld controlling Taelon,” Garshaw softly said, her eyes seemingly riveted to the proceedings. “However, the Goa'uld that he carried within him had been found dead by the time Malek and his team stormed the stronghold where we also found Aldwin, or rather Leto. Leto was Ba'al's highest ranking lieutenant and most trusted adviser.”

“Ba'al had a lieutenant?” he asked, incredulous. It seemed very odd that someone as savvy to develop clones and even extremely intricate contingency plans would actually consult or keep an adviser around.

“Yes,” the Tok'ra stated in a matter-of-fact tone. “While Anubis, Ba'al, and the Ori threat occupied the Tau'ri and some of our peoples' attention, Leto, Tanith, and the Goa'uld within Taelon became the primary threats to our survival. Considering the knowledge that Aldwin and Taelon both held, we were very lucky to have not completely perished. It was mainly thanks to the efforts of Malek and his cell's operations that kept Leto at bay.”

Looking around, he noticed that Anise and Malek were standing among the crowd – he would have thought that at least Malek would be at the forefront of the crowd, considering just how angry the Tok'ra looked. Shaking his head slightly, Daniel returned his attention to the scene before him, noting with worry that even though the Goa'uld inside of Aldwin was still holding him high and proud, there was quite a pallor cast on the host's skin. He couldn't see any external signs of sarcophagus addiction, but only time would tell, along with questions and observations.

“Tok'ra,” Per'sus' voice boomed across the hall. “The one who stands to be executed today is known to you, as is his host. Long have we thought that one of our own, Aldwin, was dead. But he is absolved of the crimes committed, for it was not him, but Leto, adviser to Ba'al, scourge of a dozen worlds...”

Daniel sighed to himself as Per'sus started to list all the crimes that the Goa'uld committed. Even though it was necessary and would bring many of the Tok'ra a small measure of peace, he couldn't help but wonder: would Leto's host ever recover from the genocide he had unwittingly and unwillingly committed?

~◊~

_~6.5 years after the death of Ra..._

 

_Anubis_ , the name rolled around his mind over and over again as he sat in his throne, head bent slightly down in thought, while a finger was tapping the side of the gilded chair. All of them had been too scared, too cowed by the legends surrounding the system lord, and so they had agreed to serve. He himself had been trapped inside of a containment jar for a few hundred years during the time Anubis' reign had many worlds cowering. It still greatly irked him that back then, he had been outwitted, caught, and forcibly extracted by Ra as punishment for encroaching upon Qetesh's worlds and had not been released to help or hinder Anubis

Therefore, he had no memories of the legends surrounding Anubis and his banishment from the ranks of the system lords. It didn't help that the debacle between Yu and Osiris on board the station cemented most of their allegiances. He personally thought Yu was a fool to have attacked Osiris and allowed a Tok'ra operative to get away.

The sounds of booted feet, rapid in pace, did not disturb his thoughts, but it was when those booted feet stopped and the familiar voice of his lo'tar saying, “Lord Ba'al,” did he finally look up.

He was annoyed at the disturbance, but he knew that his faithful lo'tar, would never disturb him without cause. “Yes?” Ba'al asked, letting a touch of annoyance grace his tone – just enough to make his lo'tar nervous. It gave him much pleasure to watch even the most faithful squirm, knowing how much power he had over their lives.

“We have arrived. Zipacna is hailing our ship.”

“Good,” he purred, getting up and swept out of the throne room. Though his lo'tar followed behind him, he increased his pace and when he got to the communications room, he held up a hand to forbid his lo'tar from further following him in. This was a communication between two potentially allied system lords, and his lo'tar did not need to be privy to more information than what was discussed at the summit.

Pressing a few buttons on the console, the screen before him resolved into the arrogant, beady-eyed face of Zipacna. “Greetings,” he simply said.

“Ba'al,” Zipacna stated, “what brings you to this quadrant?”

“My spies told me that you had successfully captured a Tok'ra base, along with some prisoners,” he said, giving the system lord a disarming smile. He had decided to be outright in why he had come, in the hopes that it would be enough to make the annoying system lord compliant to his request. The fact that he knew that after this meeting, Zipacna would be scouring his entire fleet and homeworld looking for Ba'al's spies would provide some much needed entertainment – he knew that his spies were smart enough to never be caught by the likes of Zipacna.

“Ah, so Osiris did fulfill his...no her duty,” the system lord stated, though Ba'al could see that there had been a flash of fear and annoyance at the initial statement of spies. “Have you decided to join Anubis?”

“Yes,” he said, folding his arms across his chest, giving the system lord a cool, unruffled look. “In fact, he should know that out of all the system lords, I possess the most extensive network of spies to counteract the rest of the scourge called the Tok'ra. My addition to this alliance would prove quite fruitful if you would provide me with what I need.”

Zipacna gave him a bark of surprised laughter, staring at him as if he had gone mad. “You? You need something from me?” The surprise and amusement was instantly wiped from his face as he said, “Beg, Ba'al. Beg for it.”

“I think not,” he said, letting an amused smile make its way up his lips. “You see, if you do not give me what I want, then I will leave and give my information to Yu. Yu has not sided with Ba'al, and he will surely be rallying all of the minor lords to him to fight against Anubis. I think your master would be very disappointed with you.”

“I can shoot you down right now,” Zipacna stated, leaning slightly forward in a threatening manner.

“When over three-quarters of both your ground and air forces are on the ground?” he scoffed. “I think not. I have the advantage here, Zipacna. My bays are still full, and my troops are ready to board. Give me what I want and I will go quietly away.”

The system lord was silent for a few long moments before saying, “What do you want, then?”

“I want some of the prisoners you have captured.”

“They are all dead,” Zipacna bluntly stated.

“Yes,” he said, unfolding his arms and clasped his hands behind his back. “I know. I also know that you have twelve of them, all unaffected by the poison that the only live prisoner you managed to capture had unleashed near the chappa'ai. You can choose which ever you want and send their bodies via transport beam down to me, but I want five of them.”

He saw Zipacna open his mouth as if to say something about his request, but then shut it, as if contemplating. A few minutes later, the system lord asked, “What will you do with these prisoners?”

“I have my plans, but know that they will prove useful for my...no, Anubis' spy network.”

“Fine. You shall have your dead prisoners.”

~◊~

The familiar hum and swooshing sound of transport rings barely registered in Malek's awareness as he placed the various chests that Anise had him carry from her lab to the main chamber in preparation for today's briefing with the High Council. She was following slightly behind him carrying quite a copious amount of notebooks with her, filled with her host's writing, and placed some of it on the table beside the stack of chests.

“Selmak!” Garshaw's exclamation caused him to look up, as well as draw Anise's attention. He saw Jacob – no – it was Selmak who had control over the body, being led into the Council briefing chamber by Garshaw, looking quite haggard and dirty. Something bad had happened, and the fact that Tok'ra who had been in the vicinity of the place had heard Garshaw's voice drew them to the chamber.

“Revanna is gone,” Selmak stated.

Malek found himself immediately gripping the nearest solid item he could find to keep him from falling as his host sent steady reassurance through their bond. Silence had gripped the chamber for a moment before it was shattered by the sound of something smacking into the floor. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw that Anise had dropped the rest of her notebooks to the ground in shock, as both she and Freya struggled to keep themselves upright. Even though he himself found that his legs were strangely weak, he reached out and grasped her arm, trying to keep her steady.

“Gone?” Garshaw asked after a moment in disbelief.

“Gone,” Jacob, having taken over from Selmak, repeated. “Lantash, Ren'au, Aldwin, Jorin...all of them, dead. While Daniel and I were at the summit, Zipacna launched an attack. Most of our people were killed during the bombardment. Lantash was the only one who managed to initially survive, but he and the host he jumped into were too weak and injured. Daniel didn't use the poison on the gathered Goa'uld in the summit and when we returned, we gave that poison to Lantash. He used it upon the Jaffa at the forward base near the stargate who were collecting and stacking the dead, so that SG-1 and us could escape.”

_Gone_ , the word repeated in his mind over and over again. Forty-five of the best and brightest Tok'ra, led by Ren'au to develop the last-resort biological weapon against the Goa'uld, had been sent to Revanna. Now all of them were dead. That was a little over a quarter of what was left of them after two thousand years of resistance.

Jorin, whom he considered a friend, even though both host and symbiote, Herren, were a bit quirky, enlisted and sent to Revanna because of their expertise in viral pathology. Zuzana, another friend, enlisted into Ren'au's core team for her symbiote's expertise in naquadah. Lantash was not even supposed to be there, but Zuzana wanted to keep him at Revanna to monitor his recovery. Aldwin, sent to Revanna at the last minute because he was the only one who knew how to create the necessary crystalline iso-chambers. All dead.

_**Malek,** _ his host whispered, continuing to send comforting thoughts to him,  _**there's more to Jacob's news.** _

“Zipacna was not acting alone,” Jacob stated, his voice quite hoarse. “We didn't release the poison at the summit because Osiris showed up. Both she and Zipacna are working for Anubis.”

“Anubis?!” Anise said, taking a step forward, the shock on her face mirroring others in the chamber.

“Yes,” Jacob confirmed, taking a deep breath. “Anubis is back, and all but Yu agreed to reinstate him as a system lord amongst them. They've also allied with him. We didn't kill them because it would have left a power vacuum that would have allowed Anubis to easily fill.”

“Where is the data for the poison, Jacob?” Garshaw demanded after a moment, looking quite concerned yet angry at the same time. “We know that Ren'au would not have carelessly left it on the systems.”

“Earth has it,” Jacob admitted. “We'd best let them keep it, because if Anubis is really back, all Tok'ra operatives are in more danger than ever. Selmak speculates that it was most likely the capture and torture of one of our operatives by Anubis that led Zipacna to Revanna. Earth is more defensible than we are, so they'll keep the poison out of the wrong hands.”

Malek saw Garshaw open her mouth once, twice, only to close it and press her lips together in anger, but did not protest the decision. Though he was still reeling from the information, he knew that if he were in the same position as Jacob, he would have done the same and left the poison with the Tau'ri. The fact that even the system lords of old had saw fit to banish Anubis one thousand years ago, had saved the Tok'ra from extinction back then. Now, with Anubis rising again, and forty-five of their people already dead, he wasn't sure if any of them would still be living within three years.

~◊~

Muffled thumps and sounds of voices speaking, along with the persistent low hum was what he heard first as he found himself swimming in a haze of warmth. He could not feel his body, could not feel anything at all except for the blanket of warmth that flooded him. Was this the afterlife? What this what he was now awakening into? Was this--

Aldwin gasped as an overwhelming painful and prickly sensation filled him, and caused him to open his eyes, only to find that absolute darkness surrounded him – along with a rapidly cooling material that had been piping hot upon his back, buttocks, and the back of his head, legs, and arms. However, just as quickly the darkness surrounding him had come, it was suddenly gone as he heard a faint mechanical whine roil underneath him. Cracks of light spilled forth as sections above and to the side of him separated, bringing with it a sweepingly cold and chilly air.

It was then that he realized that there was a distinct lack of clothing covering his body as he blinked, trying to see through the fuzziness that had blanketed his eyes. It was also then that he realized the constant presence in the back of his mind was gone. A well of panic gripped him as he suddenly seized up and began thrashing, trying to scream, but only managing to choke out a whimper. He had been implanted into a sarcophagus and somehow, his symbiote had been removed.

“Ah. Finally. Success,” a smooth, velvety and deep voice spoke from above him.

Blinking as the fuzziness in his eyes started to go away, he glanced up to see an outline of a dark-haired man with a dark-haired chin fuzzily resolve into a face that he recognized from the shared memories between him and his symbiote. His eyes widened in surprise of their own accord as his mind whispered the name: _Ba'al_.

“Strange though,” the system lord said, with a frown on his face. “It seems that out of the three tested so far, this one finally has had the host separated from the symbiote.”

“W-wha...” he slurred, trying to form words but found that he couldn't for the moment.

“Jaffa, kree,” Ba'al snapped as he pulled his face away from him and gestured for guards to come over.

Aldwin felt himself being hauled up and out of the sarcophagus, the ice-cold metallic armors of the Jaffa soldiers sending chills up and down his skin. He tried to fight, but it seemed like there was a severe disconnect between the functioning of his mind and the command over his body. Polished floor scraped along his legs for a few moments before he was forcibly thrown against a cold, metal, square pole and roughly tied to it. His rubbery legs couldn't keep his weight up and he sunk to the floor again.

On the far side of the chamber, he could see four equally naked bodies. Three Tok'ra had what looked like fresh staff blasts in the chest. The fourth one did not seemed to be externally injured, though from this angle, he could see that the Tok'ra was dead. He tried to resist the urge to curl up in fear as he heard footsteps approach and looked up to see Ba'al walking towards him.

“Where are the rest of the Tok'ra, human?”

He refused to answer, and settled for glaring up at the Goa'uld. His reward was a forceful hand that clamped down upon his left shoulder as he was yanked up so that he was nearly eye-to-eye with the system lord. He saw Ba'al nod towards the Jaffa holding on to him and suddenly there was enough pressure, almost enough wrenching of his left shoulder that sent an electric wash of pain throughout his body. He tried screaming again, but like before, his cries only came out in a tiny, pathetic whimper.

“Tok'ra base location,” Ba'al simply said.

“No,” he managed to whisper, his throat dry, his voice hoarse as the pressure on his left shoulder continued to increase with each passing moment. Through watering eyes, he saw Ba'al again, nod towards another Jaffa, and at once, stars filled his eyes as agonizing pain lanced up his body from where a second Jaffa had swung the business end of a staff weapon up between his legs.

_**I am here, Aldwin.** _

At once, numbness seemed to flood his senses as he felt the roar of his symbiote's presence rush into the void. He could feel himself regain control of his body, but only as a passenger as he felt his symbiote take over and smooth his pain-filled expression into a neutral one.

He heard Ba'al mutter a curse before waving a hand towards his Jaffa, saying, “Kill him.”

“I would not do that, Lord Ba'al,” Aldwin felt and heard his symbiote speak, as the Jaffa who had been wrenching his left shoulder out of its socket let go and stepped back. The other Jaffa had also stepped back and activated the staff weapon, pointing it directly at his chest.

_**No! Don't do this,** _ he cried.  _**Whatever you have planned, it will not work! He'll kill us both!** _

_**Shush,** _ his symbiote purred in a gentle tone.  _**You know of who I am, and you know that this is the only way we will be able to survive and help our people.** _

Ba'al immediately waved for his Jaffa to stand down as he turned back around and approached them with a gleam in his eyes. “Why? Have you any final words or pathetic attempt of declaration of freedom before you die, Tok'ra? Or are you actually willing to give me the location of the primary Tok'ra base?”

“Neither,” Aldwin heard his symbiote speak. “I am willing to give you the technology you will need to crush all of your enemies.”

“A pathetic attempt to bargain for your life. I do not need technology from the likes of you, Tok'ra. I am a god, and I will crush your kind with everything that I currently have.”

“If I remember correctly,” his symbiote said, trying to stand as nonchalantly as possible with the chains still binding them to the pole, “you failed quite pathetically in trying to conquer Ra's domain after I took my tech to Qetesh.”

_**I thought we're supposed to convince him to not kill us...not goad him into killing us in the most painful manner,** _ he groused.

_**Give me the benefit of the doubt, Aldwin,** _ his symbiote said, sighing _, **I know what I'm doing. If we can get him to trust us, we can work from the inside out and bring him down.**_

“You...” was all Ba'al said, eyes flashing, as he closed the distance between them in three large steps and wrapped both hands around Aldwin's throat.

_**No... you don't...** _ he haggardly whispered as he felt his symbiote fight for air to reach his lungs.

“I...did...it...to lure Qetesh... so that you... could invade...her... domains...milord,” his symbiote gasped out. Aldwin could feel the pressure loosen slightly, and so did his symbiote. “That sarcophagus you used... to revive me... it was my design... detached the host... from...her... and then I sabotaged her... so that she was made to...chase...me.”

The pressure and the blackness that was creeping up the edges of Aldwin's vision was immediately alleviated as Ba'al let go and stepped back. He felt himself drop to the cold floor with a thud, with his symbiote gasping and coughing, trying to bring more sweet air into his lungs. However, as much as he wanted to rub his throat, his symbiote did no such thing and merely looked up and glared at the system lord.

“I admit,” Ba'al imperiously said, frowning down upon them, “the rumors I had heard about you were quite disturbing, but Qetesh did leave many of her domains unprotected in her attempts to chase you down.” The system lord knelt and Aldwin felt him roughly grab his chin, forcing them to stare eye-to-eye. “Why have you stayed away all these years? Why have I found you amongst the Tok'ra?”

“Hiding, biding my time,” his symbiote said in almost a flippant tone. “Ra's power was too great, and with the rebel queen Egeria's death, Qetesh sought to be closer to Ra, which meant that she would now have a greater reach. So I hid. When Ra was killed, and Apophis rose to take the place of his brother, it seemed that the best way to help accelerate your rise to prominence was to take down Apophis and Sokar, and the Tok'ra were the best way to accomplish that. I had neither the influence or power to accumulate troops or warships in a fast manner. I hope that I have pleased you milord.”

“You will, if you give me the location of the Tok'ra's primary base,” Ba'al said, tightening his painful grip on Aldwin's chin.

“They have most likely moved, milord,” his symbiote stated, and Aldwin could not help but agree. Both of them knew that with the beacon in place, a passing cargo ship would know that Revanna had been compromised. All remaining Tok'ra bases would immediately begin evacuation and relocation so that if any tortured survivor from Revanna gave the location of other bases, the rest of the Tok'ra would not be compromised. “However, I can give you something even better.”

As much as he wanted to protest his symbiote's course of action, he knew that they had to do it – to sacrifice a few of their operatives to ensure that they would be able to gain the trust of Ba'al. It was vital that they do so, especially when his symbiote had a tumultuous history fraught with peril when it involved this particular system lord.

“What?” Ba'al snapped in impatience.

“I know not exactly where they are, but I do know that there are operatives on two of your worlds, milord. Delos and Sulien. Even now, they are most likely amassing reports on the readiness of your troops or attempting to sabotage a vital facility.”

The painful grip that the system lord had on his chin was released as Ba'al stood back up. He saw him gesture for his Jaffa to go verify the information, and a moment later, said, “You shall remain here until we have confirmed whether or not your information is correct.”

“May I go back into the sarcophagus?” he heard his symbiote suddenly ask. He was about to say something, but refrained from doing so as he sensed that his symbiote had a plan for the sarcophagus.

“Why?” Ba'al suspiciously asked.

“Your Jaffa stupidly damaged my host's balls and nearly wrenched his shoulder out,” the symbiote spat out. “I am having a hard time keeping a grip on my host and trying to heal the body at the same time. If you would allow me another session in the sarcophagus, I can regain better control while the body heals.”

“We can always find you another host,” Ba'al dismissively said. “A female one that suits both me and you.”

“No. You let me keep this body in exchange for technology. I am no longer the consort you had those thousands of years ago. I am your adviser. I am your lieutenant. I am your left hand while your right hand wields the scepter of obedience upon the masses.”

Though still a passenger to the lavish and quite frankly, frightening display of audacity that his symbiote was showing, Aldwin could see the temptation in Ba'al's eyes. There was a hunger there, a need, for the technological advantage that his symbiote offered, and he knew that the deal was almost sealed. What more could they offer, short of sexual services, to ensure that Ba'al trusted them?

“Do as you wish,” Ba'al said at long last, gesturing for his Jaffa to free him.

As soon as the shackles were off of his wrists and ankles, Aldwin watched as his symbiote carried them with confidence over to where the wretched sarcophagus was. Kneeling down, he watched in fascination as a panel was popped open, but before both Ba'al and his Jaffa could say or do anything, the symbiote said, “So that there is no repeat of what happened the first time you revived me, I need to modify this again to ensure that I am not detached from my host.”

_**We will also need to revive Taelon and Dian,** _ he heard his symbiote whisper to him, and knew that there was a chance that perhaps, the fourth body who had not been damaged by staff blast could be revived such as they had. However, the challenge would be to convince Taelon and Dian of their plan.

A nudge by his symbiote brought his attention back to the forefront, as she said to him,  _**During the healing process, I need to flood your blood with a lot more naquadah than is currently in your system. It will help form shields for both of our minds, especially yours, so that we do not end up corrupted.** _

_**And should it not work?** _ he questioned, worried about the consequences. It was against all principles, against the morals of the Tok'ra to even consider using a sarcophagus. The corruption was too strong, and too addictive.

_**Do you trust me, Aldwin?** _

He was silent for a long moment, remembering the circumstances that had brought them together. For nearly fifty years they had each other's backs, shared each other's thoughts, memories, triumphs, loss, and love. They were united in their hatred of the Goa'uld and the need to protect their people. He could ask no more of his symbiote than his symbiote could ask of him, especially with the promise to never reveal his symbiote's true identity to anyone. That promise had been exacted with each host that his symbiote had taken throughout the years, and each one had known what was at stake. For them to defeat the system lords, this was their best chance to do so, even if it meant selling their souls to the devil.

_**I trust you, Leto.** _

“Leave that undamaged Tok'ra's body here,” his symbiote commanded, replacing the panel, with the sarcophagus' crystals all modified. “I will need an assistant, and I remember that this particular Tok'ra has knowledge that will be useful.”

“Jaffa, kree!” Ba'al commanded, as Aldwin felt himself climb into the cold sarcophagus. The marching footsteps of many Jaffa stomped out of the chamber, and he heard Ba'al shift at the entrance. “Remember,” the system lord warned, “the agreement is not fully in effect yet. I shall return once we have confirmed reports on those worlds. Until then, my Jaffa will kill you should you do anything to sabotage this ship.”

“And when you do,” his symbiote said, as the sarcophagus reacted to a body inside of it and started to close, “have your Jaffa bring me something so that I may cover my body. I am quite tired of walking around naked.”

The cold tomb closed around them, and for a second, Aldwin felt a flight of panic well up in him, but the soothing touch of his symbiote made it go away. Coldness started to give way to warmth and he knew that the healing process of the sarcophagus was beginning again. Sleepiness crept up upon him, and though he tried to fight it, he found that it had an iron grip on his mind, fuzzing it until he fell into oblivion.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 6**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

Anise blinked, mainly to keep fresh tears from running, as she watched from the middle of the gathered crowd. Per'sus' booming voice fell silent after the reading of crimes committed by the lieutenant of Ba'al in Ba'al's name and the only sounds filling the silence were the rustles of clothing. Leto's host had been bound tightly to the end of the extractor, and to prevent any accidental tongue biting during the extraction process, a leather strap had been wrapped around the host's mouth. No last words would be said by Leto, for the Tok'ra did not need to suffer any more undue hardships from the system lord.

“Malek,” Per'sus spoke up as the crowd parted slightly, giving her friend room to approach forward. She wanted to follow Malek as she watched him stiffly approach the extractor, but she refrained from moving. It was Malek and those he led in the aftermath of the Raisa base who had suffered the most in Leto's hands, and it was him, who would free their friend, Aldwin, from the clutches of Leto.

She saw her friend lifted his a hand up, fingers hovering on the surface of the button that would activate the extractor. “For Raisa,” he whispered, and pressed the button.

~◊~

_~7.3 years after the death of Ra..._

 

“SG-12 and SG-15, may I present to you the leader of this cell, Malek.”

Malek held him self still as he quickly, but discreetly scanned the faces of the eight Tau'ri visitors, trying to see if there was a match to any of them with his host's memories. He could feel his host shuddering in relief as none of the faces of the Tau'ri were recognized by him, but still did not come forth to fill the niche again. There was only so much reassurance he could give to his host and he knew that only when the Tau'ri explorers left would his host even feel remotely safe enough to emerge from his shell. The quicker they could get the advice dispensed with, the better.

It had only been less than eight months since the base on Revanna had been destroyed, but it had been Jacob who insisted that a new cell be established with Tau'ri help to combat the rapid rise of Anubis. Convincing the Council took a lot of effort, but surprisingly, Jacob and Selmak were quite persuasive, and eventually, the Council had given Jacob the approval to approach the Tau'ri in the joint-establishment of the cell. Malek did not know if it was Jacob who had nominated him to be cell leader, but he had received his orders only three days ago.

Thus now, three days later, with the bare basics of a tunneling complex established on Raisa, the Tau'ri had sent two of their best infiltration teams here. Raisa was the closest that the Tok'ra dared to set up in, for it was on the edges of Anubis' current territories. It was with hope that at the rate that the Goa'uld was conquering areas, that Raisa would not be discovered and would eventually become a centerpoint for all clandestine Tok'ra and Tau'ri intelligence operations.

“Malek,” Jacob said, gesturing to the eight Tau'ri members, “may I present to you SG-15: Major Pierce, Captain Schneider, Lieutenant Riveria, and Ms. Gant, formerly of the CIA. SG-12: Major Thomason, Captain Farillo, Lieutenant Nakamura, and Dr. Benedict.”

“Greetings,” he said, keeping his tone short as he eyed the civilians identified to him. With his host's memories, he knew that he had heard of Dr. Katia Benedict before, but only in passing, for it was from a high integrity publication that his host had perused during his formal education studies. His host had not known Dr. Benedict and certainly, the scientist had not heard or seen his host before, so there was no worry about being identified. As for the other civilian, Gant, it was the afterthought that Jacob had tacked on that worried him.

“What is the 'CIA', Jacob?” he asked, knowing that he had to ask – he could not reveal that he had a very rough and working knowledge of various Tau'ri political organizations from his host's memories. It was also a deliberate organization dropped by Jacob to have him ask the question, for all Tok'ra knew that the Tau'ri had not revealed the existence of their program or their fight against the system lords to the rest of their world yet. They only knew that the organization called the United States Air Force controlled the Tau'ri chappa'ai and that another country on the planet allied with the main Tau'ri contingent worked with them.

It was mainly the other country's involvement with the current batch of Tau'ri explorers that had made Malek extremely protective of his host, though up until now, he had successfully managed to evade any sort of direct contact with the Tau'ri teams. His host had suffered too much in the hands of the Tau'ri people who had abducted him and forced him through a chappa'ai, only to end up in the hands of Sokar all those years ago. Thrown into a cell after many rounds of vicious interrogation, Malek had healed his new host after Lysana had urged him to live, and discovered what the Tau'ri had done to his new host. It was then that vowed to never let the Tau'ri ever hurt him again.

Now though...

“Ah, I'm glad you asked,” Jacob said, clapping him on the shoulders as he gestured for SG-15 to follow them to where the rings were buried. There were a few words exchanged between the leaders of SG-15 and SG-12 before they left. Crowded around as close as possible, he could feel his host retreat even further and tried to send soothing thoughts to him, not letting the close proximity to the Tau'ri people affect him. As soon as they were underground, Jacob continued to say, “We have several domestic and foreign intelligence organizations operating on Earth. Countries on Earth don't really trust each other too much, but the fine dance between trust and distrust is keeping us from annihilating each other with nukes. The 'CIA' is one such organization, known to operate on a deeply wide global level, and Ms. Gant here is one of their best former agents. I figured that if we're going to be doing this joint operation against Anubis, we'll need the best to support us.”

“The Tau'ri people are very strange, Jacob,” he couldn't help but say, frowning slightly. How all the countries of Earth cooperated and actually traded with each other while employing such subversive and distrustful tactics was quite puzzling to him.

Jacob was not the only person to give a bark of laughter as he heard laughter from both Gant and Pierce. He decided not to glance back, and instead, continued on, towards the heart of their new home. It was the CIA agent that worried him the most, for even though his host did not hold any recognition of the woman, the woman's experience may have resulted in an indirect encounter between his host and the woman's organization many years ago. He had only needed one glance at the woman to know that she was a very shrewd and resourceful person. Short of killing the woman and permanently ending the Tau'ri alliance, which was something he would never do, there was nothing he could do to prevent the woman from possibly finding out who his host was, when she returned to the Tau'ri homeworld.

As the six of them entered a rather large central chamber, freshly carved only twelve hours before, Ocker looked up and came around from the planning table he had been working at. Malek did not miss the cold, calculating look that Ocker was giving the Tau'ri members. Given the nature of the mission, he was quite glad that the ever paranoid Ocker had been assigned as his chief of security.

“SG-15,” he said as pleasantly as he could while stepping slightly to the side, given the circumstances and just how tightly wound up in a ball of nervousness his host was – he could feel the nervousness slowly bleed into him. “May I introduce Ocker, my chief of security.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Pierce said, giving Ocker a nod.

“Let's get started, shall we?” Jacob said, breaking the slightly tension-filled silence, gesturing for the Tau'ri members to approach the table. Mentally sighing and knowing that there was nothing more he could do to try to protect his host, he joined them. Anubis had become a great threat and that in itself was a more pressing concern than other matters.

“This--” Ocker began, but stopped as the sounds of rapid running footsteps echoed through the halls.

“Anubis' ships have been spotted coming out of hyperspace, headed right towards us!”

A litany of curses, both learned from his host's native language and from his own long memories ran through his mind as he immediately pressed a slightly raised button on the table, sounding the evacuation alarm. The Tok'ra had only been here less than eighteen hours and already, someone had betrayed their location to Anubis. It was almost unimaginable as to how fast the system lord had gathered forces to assault this barely established base. They hadn't even had time to scout out an alternate location yet!

“Ocker,” he said, keeping his voice as steady and as calm as possible, as Tok'ra around them reacted to the mad scramble. “Clear the tunnels and start evacuating everyone to the chappa'ai.” He would be damned if most of his cell got caught underground in a similar manner to those who had perished at Revanna.

“We don't have an evac site,” Jacob said as Ocker merely gave them a curt nod and left to go carry out his duties.

“Earth then,” Pierce spoke up. “We'll need to get topside to contact Thomason and the others.”

“Jacob, go with them,” he ordered, giving the Tau'ri a look that was a cross between relief and worry. Whoever had betrayed their location would know that they would be going to Earth – Earth was very defensible and when they got to safe haven, he would be able to work out as to who had betrayed them. “I'll collapse the tunnels.”

They parted ways, and as the sounds of SG-15 and Jacob running through the halls faded into the general controlled chaos that went into an evacuation, he hurried along the halls, down to where the beginnings of personal quarters were being built. Many of the members of his cell were not carrying anything except for weapons, and most of them, including him, fell hard to the ground as the first of many explosions above ground impacted them.

Dust and debris from falling pieces of the crystal tunnels shattered around the Tok'ra as he saw more than a few bodies down a another hall get buried by the avalanche. Shaking his head to clear the ringing from his ears, along with the heavy amount of dust and flecks of stone that covered his head, he was once again, thrown to the ground with another round of bombardment. The sounds of the stones cracking and falling, along with the screams of Tok'ra being buried alive around rang in his ears as he picked himself up and forced himself to continue to run.

Pausing every so often to ride out bombardment after bombardment, hoping that the ceiling above him would not collapse, he finally made it to the shared quarters and next to the first bed, tugged open a chest. Inside were two things, the only two items he had brought with him from his previous posting. One was a small sphere with a few thin crystal leads coming out of it that was glowing blue. It was a variant of the bomb he and his host had built to collapse Netu's core. The second item was a small satchel that clinked slightly when he opened it.

Reaching into the satchel he pulled out a large, clear crystal that contained flecks of yellow and red facets embedded in it. The crystal was a prototype, one of a kind, and it had been given to him by Aldwin before departing to Revanna last year. According to Aldwin, it was a collapsing crystal that combined all elements of the crystals needed with the speed boosted ten-fold. Even then, Aldwin had not been sure if it would work and had mentioned that if nothing else, it would make a pretty-looking lucky charm.

As luck would have it, Malek knew that he did not have time to plant several arrays of crystals; he needed to get the tunnels quickly erased. Tok'ra scouts had scoured Revanna after Zipacna and his cohorts had finally left, and found that the tunnels had not even been erased and that there were virtually no bodies present in the tunnels. They had also found all but twelve of their own next to poisoned Jaffa near the stargate. Now, with Anubis' upon them, the ghost of Revanna could not happen again.

Putting the spherical bomb into the satchel, he instinctively ducked and covered his head as yet another tremor ran through the tunnels. Fortunately, nothing big collapsed upon him. Snatching the satchel up, he tied the ends of it securely to his waist belt, knowing that there was enough protective layers on the variant bomb that the other crystals inside of the satchel would not crack it open unless enough force was applied. Ocker had still not reported an all-clear on the tunnels, though with how many passages collapsed, he wasn't even sure if his chief of security was still alive. He could not wait for an 'all clear'.

_Here goes nothing_ , he thought to himself, using an often-said phrase by his host whenever they had been mixing chemicals or creating explosives in the labs.

Slamming the crystal down into the ground, another round of bombardment shook the walls and ceiling, but there was also an explosion happening before him, and he backed away as quickly as he could. The glow of the white-blue liquified mass of the stone-eater bubbled out from the center of the crystal and suddenly expanded with an explosive sound and started to engulf the area at a very fast rate.

He turned and ran, skidding across sand and stone, and half-tripping through columns of crystal growth as he made his way back to the ring room. He passed many bodies of his fellow Tok'ra, buried in stone, with their blood slowly trickling away in tiny rivulets, but still he did not stop. They were dead and there was nothing he could do for them – they would be consumed by the stone-eater and would not give Anubis any information.

“Malek!” Ocker shouted out to him as he saw his chief of security and another Tok'ra lugging a chest towards the ring room. “We could not connect to the Tau'ri homeworld. Jacob dialed another location, but he says that he needs explosives to destroy the dialer.”

He mentally cursed to himself – the various explosives they had were near the corridor where the sleeping quarters had been, and most likely were already consumed. There was still his little variant bomb, but he had hoped that it would be used to destroy Anubis' mothership instead of a chappa'ai dialing device. He could not be picky and said, “I have one.”

“We are also bringing the za'tarc detector to the evacuation site,” Ocker stated as they finally got to the ring room and positioned themselves. Just as the rings descended down upon them, Malek saw the faint glow of the stone-eater appear from a bend in the hall and a moment later, the mass spilled over. However, he did not see anymore as the ring whisked them up to the surface.

Instinct had him immediately ducking and rolling to the side as the _whoomp whoomp_ sounds of staff weapons' energy blasts flew in the space where he had been. Honed by nearly two thousand years of fighting, he smoothly rolled up from his dodge, drawing his zat'nik'tel from its holster, activated it and unleashed a torrent of blue electrical lances.

Jaffa bearing the mark of Anubis fell, but where they fell, more seemed to come; an endless army. He glanced back to see Ocker and the other Tok'ra hurrying as fast as they could to the active chappa'ai. Members of SG-12, or what was left of them, for he could only see charred bodies, along with a few Tok'ra who died while trying to escape, were scattered across the sand near the chappa'ai. Still, the members of SG-15 were near the dialer device, covering Jacob as he worked to disable the device.

Ducking staff weapon blasts and running as fast as he could, he slid to a halt next to Jacob and ripped the satchel from his waist belt. Shoving the satchel and its contents towards Jacob, he shouted over the sound of gunfire, “There is an explosive in there, similar to the one used on Netu. Hook it up to the dialer. The naquadah in the dialer should enhance its explosion three-fold. I will cover you.”

“Got it!” Jacob shouted and Malek half-crouched and crawled towards the remnants of a rock that had been used as cover by a SG-12 member. His ears were already ringing quite badly with the combined sounds of gunfire, energy blasts, and from the collapsing tunnels, but with strength flowing in from his host, he steadied his hands and fired away.

Electrical washes of blue crawled over wave after wave of Jaffa, as he pointed and shot as many as he could. He could not afford to send two zat'nik'tel blasts per Jaffa towards Anubis's army, for their numbers were increasing with the seconds ticking by. That, and the overhead screams of gliders and bombers dropping their explosive payloads was the least of his worry. Still he did not stop, and his firm resolve in the face of such overwhelming odds was bolstered by his host, who was determined to take down as many of the Jaffa as possible.

“Colonel Pierce, go!” he heard Jacob shout, but did not glance back and continued to fire his weapon. The staccato of gunfire stopped, but the noise did not die down as he saw out of the corner of his eyes, the members of SG-15 quickly run towards the chappa'ai. It was only the heavy hand of Jacob landing on his shoulder that he finally acknowledged the retreat order. Firing one more round, he turned and with Jacob, the two of them ran towards the chappa'ai. He barely got a glance over at what Jacob had done with the variant explosive, but what he saw pleased him immensely.

From what he knew, crystals, especially tunneling crystals, were technically not supposed to be ever fused with naquadah, much less an explosive, since they were already quite volatile. Jacob had not only connected the Netu variant bomb to the dialer, but had also arrayed whatever crystals that had been in the satchel around the inside of the dialer. The activating fusing crystal was going to combine everything there into a an immensely powerful explosive.

_**Allow me,**_ he heard his host say just before he disappeared into the chappa'ai. With a grim smile, he allowed his host brief control and found himself turning slightly as his host gave the army of Jaffa rushing towards the chappa'ai an obscene gesture using only one finger. Malek regained control just as the army opened fired and slipped through the cold horizon.

The smell of a fresh forest and dirt assaulted his senses as he stepped through the chappa'ai. However, just before it disappeared, one last golden blast lanced through and into Jacob's right leg. “Jacob!” he shouted, immediately catching the old man before he could fall down the stone steps.

He saw a woman with light hair cropped short approach and realized that the woman most likely Jacob's daughter, Major Samantha Carter. His assumption was proven correct when he saw [CARTER] etched upon the woman's clothing. Concern for her father was clearly showing on her face, as he stepped to the side after she had slung one of Jacob's arm around her shoulders. Pausing for a moment before he made his way down with them, he looked around. With his long memory, he found himself not recognizing this planet at all. Where had Jacob sent the Tok'ra to?

The other immediate concern actually came from his host as he drew his eyes down from the horizon and onto those gathered there. Injured Tok'ra were being tended to by Tau'ri physicians, and with despair coloring his mind, he counted the remaining people from his cell at less than a quarter than what they had started out with. However, there were numerous amounts of Tau'ri around, and mingling in with them were also... Jaffa.

His hand tightened on his zat'nik'tel as he felt a surge of fear flood his host, with the wave impacting his own wall of anger. Where were they and why were there so many Jaffa and Tau'ri here?

~◊~

It was the deliberately slow clapping of hands that brought her out of her concentration state while reading through the schematics that had been salvaged from what was left of Ba'al's little experiment base. She blinked, feeling her host's eyelids run as rough as sand over their eyes and sent a small spasm of apology up to him. There was a faint pat of reassurance from her host that told her that he did not mind the constant staring at the schematics she had been pouring over for the past few hours.

Her mind might have identified as female, but her host's body was male; though there were certain limits that she was able to push any human body – she could feel sluggishness grip her host's body. She needed to sleep, and the interruption from her work by Ba'al, who had entered the chamber she worked in. Taelon, or rather, Dian, as the symbiote had also taken over to ensure that the other revived Tok'ra host was not hurt, had also looked up from his workstation. Dian was warily watching Ba'al, but did not say a word.

It had been several months since both she and Aldwin, along with Taelon and Dian, had been revived and had started to work for Ba'al, determined to collapse not only Ba'al's empire, but also Anubis' forces from within. It was tricky though, as both she and Dian had found out – Ba'al was playing both sides of the game – seemingly subservient to Anubis, but also slowly gathering his forces to launch a strike against the powerful system lord when the opportunity would present itself.

Now though, after a few months of developing and prototyping several different types of weapons, they had been moved to an annex from Ba'al's main palace. As Ba'al's trust in them grew, Leto felt that it was almost time to begin requesting a completely separate planet for them to continue their 'work'.

Small, untraceable steps had also been taken in the past few months to start undermining the system lord, but both she and Dian knew that they had to be extremely careful. Anubis had integrated a few of his forces into Ba'al's own forces, and they were constantly being watched like hawks. Once they moved to a separate planet, then perhaps their efforts to destroy the system lord could begin in earnest.

“I congratulate you, Leto,” Ba'al said, the tone of his smooth voice hinting that he was quite pleased. “Your brilliant suggestion to me has garnered an incredible blow against the Tok'ra.”

_**What?!**_ both she and her host shouted within their shared mind-space. Outwardly, she kept her cool and merely raised an eyebrow, wondering what exactly Ba'al was referring to. She had given him many 'suggestions' in the course of a few months, all guaranteed to fail at some point in time when the right pressure was applied by either the Tau'ri, rebel Jaffa, or Tok'ra.

“Anubis has seen small groups of Jaffa that I have seeded on several of my fringe worlds as scouts, and has taken that idea to use as his own. Instead of placing his own Jaffa forces on the edges of his current territories, he decided to assign one cloaked Ashrak on each planet. A more sustainable number, given that the Ashrak does not require much sustenance to maintain, unlike a scouting group.”

An icy pit developed in her host's stomach, drawn from both her and her host's dread as to what may have happened. The scouting groups that she had originally suggested were supposed to be there to be used by Tau'ri, Tok'ra, or rebel Jaffa to plant diversions or subversive information that would be reported back to Ba'al. To hear that Anubis had taken the idea and instead used Ashrak...

“I've just received word from one of Anubis himself that an Ashrak on Raisa discovered the beginnings of a Tok'ra base, reported it to our lord, and our lord has destroyed it. A few Tok'ra escaped with the Tau'ri that were with them, but the Ashrak has followed them to a location currently unknown. Anubis is awaiting the final report.”

_**Let me kill him!**_ her host screamed, fighting to take control from her as she merely stood there at her workstation and shrugged.

_**Aldwin, please! Calm down,**_ she begged him, tightening control over their shared body without trying to hurt him. She too wanted to lunge out right there and snap Ba'al's neck for what he had done, but she couldn't – they could not break cover yet. Anubis was still a greater threat than Ba'al. She needed her host to understand, to have more patience, to know that this was going to be a long ruse and that there would be consequences that would be hard to swallow but had to be swallowed.

To completely defeat a system lord, one had to become as ruthless as a system lord – she knew that from first hand experience.

“Did you receive news if the cell was their High Council?” she asked after a moment, feeling her host withdrawing from her and curl up within himself to stew on his frustration.

“No,” Ba'al answered, seemingly gliding further into the chamber. “Ground troops who had not died from the explosive device set near the chappa'ai, identified two of the Tok'ra who escaped into the chappa'ai as Jacob Carter of the Tau'ri, and Malek of Ichterus.”

Relief tinged with worry washed over her, coming mainly from her host as she still stoically stood where she was, seemingly bored with the news. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a minute twitching of Dian's host's hands, but other than that, Dian had not even reacted one bit to the news. He looked just as bored, if not even more than she had twisted her host's expression to be.

“I am honored that you saw fit to pass on my suggestions to Lord Anubis,” she answered, bowing slightly, knowing that her words would also sting in the face of Ba'al. How it must have incensed Ba'al to have the scouts he had planted on many worlds manipulated into a single Ashrak idea by Anubis. Her own relief for Jacob and Malek still being alive and sadness at the loss of several more of their numbers mixed in with Aldwin's emotions. However, both of them took comfort for what little the news could afford, and she knew that she would have to be more careful with the 'suggestions' that she made to Ba'al. The remaining Tok'ra and Tau'ri on Raisa had escaped from the bulk of Anubis' forces, but there was still a cloaked Ashrak they had to deal with. None of them knew if their people were still alive. If they were, whatever Jacob, Malek, and the other Tok'ra had planned at Raisa would no longer work, and different measures would have to be taken.

“Yes, and unfortunately, he has now asked for my help in retrieving certain objects,” the system lord stated, frowning in annoyance. “I expect you and your...helper... to continue developing prototypes while I am gone. You may administer my worlds, but my First Prime will be remaining here to ensure that you do not overreach your position.”

“I understand, milord,” she said, bowing. “As I have said before, I am your lieutenant, your left hand. If I may ask, what is it that Lord Anubis has asked you to retrieve?”

“Six objects,” Ba'al answered in a dismissive tone, but she could see the calculating look behind his eyes. He was not going to waste this opportunity to covertly gather more forces to him. “They are collectively called 'the Eye of Ra' and they are scattered in unknown areas of this wretched galaxy.”

Leto felt the blood drain from her, but maintained the stoic look on her host's face as she felt the curious prodding from her host, asking her what the 'Eye of Ra' was. She did not answer Aldwin's mental question and instead, kept all thoughts to herself. Her greatest creation was not the tunneling crystals that she had given to the Tok'ra, but of six crystal discs that she had presented to Ra as a peace offering in the early days of the system lords. The knowledge on how to create the crystal discs had come directly from her first host, who was not of this galaxy, and her arrogance back then had led to its creation. It had been well before this current motley batch of system lords ruled the galaxy, and even longer before Yu had become a system lord.

Her greatest creation was a weapon, given to Ra, that was capable of destroying the chappa'ai. Now, Anubis was looking for it.

~◊~

_**Can we go already?** _

_**No,**_ he patiently replied, slightly annoyed by his host's whining which had begun only fifteen minutes ago after the chappa'ai had been activated. It was not the tone of a petulant child that his host was asking to go – it was more because his host was very uneasy with regards to their current location.

The Ashrak who had tried to sow distrust and discord amongst the three factions had nearly succeeded, but it had been the efforts of Jacob, Bra'tac, and the Tau'ri who kept them together. Now, with the Ashrak dead, the Tok'ra had been allowed to travel to the Tau'ri homeworld, gather supplies, and search for a new home to re-establish their base. Other cells, including the one that housed the High Council, had been contacted to let them know of Raisa's demise, for there had not been time to even plant a beacon. The traitor who had given away their location had not been found, but Malek was having doubts that there had been a traitor at all – it could have all been from the Ashrak who most likely had been on Raisa when the Tok'ra moved there.

“So, Jacob,” he heard O'Neill say as the metal doors to the chappa'ai room opened and in walked the team leader of SG-1, along with Major Carter, and Jacob, “when will we be seeing you next for yet another exciting adventure?”

He heard Major Carter laugh as she shook her head in exasperation, though Jacob answered, saying, “Probably not for a while. The High Council thinks that the base Malek and his cell were trying to establish is still viable. I'll be helping them for a little bit before the Council sends me off on another mission.”

Malek managed to keep the surprise off of his face as he absorbed the unexpected news. Jacob had been the one to go to where the High Council currently were based and report what had happened on Raisa, but had not said much after he had returned. There had been a pensive look on Jacob's face when he had returned, and he had decided not to bother Jacob or Selmak about it, knowing that sometimes, a Tok'ra preferred to be left alone with his or her thoughts.

“Well, take care, dad,” Major Carter said, giving her father a hug before stepping back.

“Ready?” he heard Jacob ask and nodded.

The two of them stepped up the short flight of stairs and ascended the ramp. He could feel his host's excitement in getting off of the Tau'ri homeworld and let a small amount of it bleed through to him. However, they were half-way up the ramp when a shout echoed through the drab, utilitarian halls, saying, “Wait!”

Both Malek and Jacob turned, as did some of those in the room to see a woman run in, with a rather large pack strapped to her back. It took Malek a moment to identify the woman as the civilian who was traveling with SG-15, Ms. Gant. She was not dressed in the green clothes of an SG team, but in an all-black jumpsuit that matched the color of the pack she was carrying. He wondered why she was here.

“Thought you already went through, Gant,” O'Neill said.

“No, sir,” the woman answered. “Was just sending a message to my twin sister. Sorry about that sir.”

“You sure you're not your twin, Gant?” O'Neill asked, raising an eyebrow, though with the tone that he had asked the question, Malek could hear a sort of amusing tease behind it.

“No, sir. Major Gant still hates gate travel.”

“All right then,” O'Neill answered, giving her a casual wave of his hand.

Malek looked towards Jacob as the woman stepped up the stairs and approached them, wondering what was going on. “I'll explain when we get to the other side,” Jacob answered, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

He was about to protest the decision, arguing that as cell leader, he had authorization to approve or disapprove members of the cell. No one had told him that a Tau'ri was to be joining them. He thought that after what had happened on both Raisa and the Tau'ri's secret site, that SG teams were not going to assist them any longer. However, there was a sharp look on Jacob's face and the protest died on his lips. He merely turned and continued towards the chappa'ai as soon as the Gant woman reached them.

His host was definitely not happy but Malek was curious as to why only Gant and not SG-15 had accompanied them. Passing through the cold liquid, he emerged on the other side and into a very hot and humid environment. As the three of them descended the stairs to the bottom, with the chappa'ai behind them winking out, they took a few minutes to navigate through the boggy muck until solid ground was beneath them again.

“Jacob,” he stated, expecting his answer as the three of them made their way further into the enormously thick forest that surrounded the chappa'ai. It was Jacob who suggested that they not burrow into the ground on this planet but instead, take shelter in the shadow of abandoned ruins that looked as if they had previously been occupied by a colony of Ataniks. The amount of vegetation, along with so many creatures that dotted the area near the chappa'ai and around the ruins made it very ideal for them to blend in, and with what they were about to embark upon, the less technology they had active, the better for their operations.

“The Council wants to break the alliance with Earth,” Jacob answered, though Malek could hear a small amount of frustration color his tone. “First Revanna...now Raisa... there's not much left of the Tok'ra.”

He nodded to Jacob's words, keeping a very tight grip on the sorrow that had spilled over both him and his host in the aftermath of news about Revanna, from being opened again. He did not need the sorrow of loosing so many friends adding upon those he had lost at Raisa – he just needed the anger borne from it. “We can run the operation with the bare minimum, Jacob.”

“Exactly what I was thinking, which is where Ms. Gant comes in,” Jacob said, stopping. He too stopped and turned back to see that there was a serious look on the woman's face, but she did not say a word. Jacob continued, saying, “I didn't want to say more than I really had to when SG-15 was present, because well...even with what we're doing out here, fighting the Goa'uld, they weren't exactly cleared to hear certain details about international relations on Earth. Ms. Gant is formerly of the CIA, but before she joined us, she spent three years as an embedded agent with Mossad. Mossad is an organization similar to the CIA except that they're even more secretive than the CIA – I don't even know what exactly do short of defending their country from internal and external threats. The thing is, all I really know about them is that they operate in a very similar manner that the Tok'ra have operated in the past two thousand years. We need fresh ideas to take down the Goa'uld and I think Ms. Gant here can provide that.”

“I'm always happy to help, sir,” Gant spoke up, though Malek heard a confidence in the tone of her voice that bordered on near-arrogance. “Assassinations, double agent coercion, intelligence extraction, informational gathering, implantation of false information and evidence, the works.”

“She thinks like us, but she is not one of us,” Malek said, clasping his hands behind his back as he felt his host shrink away, absolutely terrified of the woman that stood before them. Just the mention of the other organization had sent his host fleeing to the darkest corners of their shared body, and he knew then, that the woman Jacob had brought with them was a very valuable asset. He didn't know or really cared about any planetary organization of the Tau'ri, but it was not the potential identification of his host that had his host scared – it was the fear behind the organizational name.

He understood how a different type of fear could be generated behind a name, for Garshaw, the most infamous of the Tok'ra, had utilized it to become a weapon. Wherever she struck, her name was whispered in awe and there were many times where even just a mention of where she potentially was gave the relentless hunting Jaffa some pause. Garshaw's name became both a weapon and synonymous with the Tok'ra resistance. He curled his lips slightly back in distaste as he stared at the woman, a part of his pride not wanting help from the Tau'ri, but he knew that it was inevitable. Jacob was right – they needed fresh new ideas to combat Anubis, and even though the Tok'ra-Tau'ri alliance was on very shaky grounds, could this one woman make a difference?

“Yes, she thinks like us but is not us,” Jacob answered, nodding his head. “But there's also something else. The Council suggested that we leave Anubis to the Tau'ri and rebel Jaffa, and I'm inclined to agree with them on that. We have one agent successfully embedded into his force, though not at the highest level we wanted the agent to be infiltrated into. Our numbers cannot support another attempt on infiltrating Anubis' forces, so I think the best bet is to take down his support. We should go after the system lords who have allied with him and are supplying his fleets and troops.”

“Ba'al or Osiris then?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. “Morrigan, Bastet, and the others who were at the summit last year are wavering in their allegiance to Anubis. Yu's resistance to Anubis' expansion is growing.”

There was a nod of assent from Jacob as he said, “Word on the street is, is that Ba'al is also possibly playing both sides of the conflict – setting himself up so that when Anubis falls, he takes over as the new Supreme System Lord. Osiris has been quiet since absorbing what's left of Zipacna's fleets; I don't think we need to worry about her for now. The Council will send a few operatives in to bolster Yu and others still resisting, but they will not take any large amount of action against any of the system lords.”

The Tau'ri Tok'ra paused for a moment, sighing, before continuing to say, “I hate putting Earth in the firing line, but as of right now, they have the best chance of directly fighting against Anubis. What they did earlier this year with Kaanan's actions and sending Yu the coordinates to Ba'al's hidden facility was good, but it is something that really should have been left to us.”

“And what is your role in this, Jacob?” he asked, curious as to what exactly the Tau'ri Tok'ra had planned.

“I'm going to draw Anubis' attention away from the Tok'ra and focus it elsewhere.”

“Just you, sir?” Gant jumped in.

“Trust me, I have a much better relationship with the rebel Jaffa and Tau'ri than the rest of the Tok'ra. I'll be fine,” the old man answered.

“If you say so, sir,” the woman said, still dubious.

“We will concentrate our efforts on Ba'al,” he stated, nodding and deciding that he would not prod Jacob any further to his plans. It would be for the best if he didn't know exactly what Jacob or Selmak would do. “If I recall correctly, he was locked in a stasis chamber for a few hundred years during the time Anubis was forced into exile by the other system lords. Other than that, I do not recall how his methods of warfare are usually deployed.”

“Oh yeah, he definitely was a squirrely one,” Jacob said, and Malek frowned, not quite understanding what the word meant. Even his host was confused.

“A bit unconventional then?” Gant supplied.

“Yeah. Definitely unconventional. From what the Council gave me, and from what Selmak remembers, he experimented with a lot of tech and weapons back in the day, and still does, hence his outpost that Kaanan infiltrated into. There's also rumors that he has recently acquired the services of a minor system lord who is a self-proclaimed technological experimenter like he is.”

“Acquired the services?” he questioned, slightly unsure at the fact that a system lord such as Ba'al would even be able to cooperate with another system lord who had just as big of an ego as he did.

“Yeah, I know,” the old man answered, shaking his head slightly. “Kind of hard to believe. But it is something worth investigating if you and your cell are going to bring down Anubis' support structure.”

“Does this minor system lord have a name?” Gant asked.

“Leto,” Jacob said, shrugging slightly. “Selmak has never heard of him. Our operative in Anubis' ranks says that Anubis used an idea that Leto had about implanting scouts on all territorial fringe systems. I think that's how the Ashrak went through with us, and how Anubis was able to discover Raisa so quickly.”

Malek could not help but feel worried, that Jacob had virtually confirmed his theory about the Ashrak. His worry was also not confined to the theory, nor was because of his host's unease at what they were about to embark upon. It stemmed mainly from the fact that Selmak, the oldest and wisest of them, had never even heard of this minor system lord.

New system lords, both minor and major rarely ever appeared, for with the extensive information network that was the backbone of Tok'ra operations, they always had information about any Goa'uld at their fingertips. The last new system lord to appear was almost fifteen hundred years ago, and that had been Nirrti. Granted that they had only been fighting for two thousand years, but the Tok'ra were quite sure that they had accounted for all minor and major system lords who were still alive within the span of their operations.

This new minor system lord, this 'Leto', was someone unknown, and with what little information that had been given to them, perhaps a surgical strike at Ba'al to undermine Anubis was not the best of choices. If they eliminated Ba'al, there was the possibility that the new minor system lord would become a major system lord and yet another augment to Anubis' forces that they did not need. They would have to tread very carefully for the next few months as they gathered information about the 'Leto' and formulated a plan to keep Ba'al at bay.

 

~*~*~*~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...because Malek's host sometimes thinks like a 12-year-old... especially when there's an army of Jaffa running towards him and he's about to escape... *sigh*
> 
> So...this is where it starts diverging slightly into AU territory... Also, Agent Gant is a creation of mine, taken from the fact that the actress who plays Major Gant (who served on Prometheus) has a real-life twin sister, so I figured that it would be fun to play with that. This particular chapter is also an indirect tribute to another awesome scifi series that was being filmed in Vancouver for a couple of years around the same time that SG-1 was being filmed. That series was called Jeremiah.
> 
> There will be no crossover between the series - they are strictly in their own separate universes and do not contain the same characters.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 7**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

“So, I heard that they executed another Goa'uld,” Vala said, walking up to him, looking quite cheerful.

“Yeah,” Daniel said, shaking his head slightly at the utterly ridiculous ceremony that had preceded the actual execution. His initial check up on the Goa'uld's host, Aldwin, had yielded no visible effects of sarcophagus addiction, but he knew that it could potentially take a few hours to manifest as the body got used to no longer having a constant source of naquadah. Aldwin was now resting in a more secluded and private area in the city, and he dared not disturb him, preferring to allow him to get as much rest as possible. It was what Janet had done for him when he had been recovering from his own sarcophagus addiction years ago.

Turning towards Vala, he scratched the back of his head for a moment, saying, “I didn't know that Ba'al kept advisers around. I thought he was a one-man decision-maker army.”

“Except that he had clones,” Vala pointed out. “So, who was this 'great and trusted' adviser?”

“Some Goa'uld named Leto,” he said, sighing, running a hand down his face before rubbing his tired eyes with his fingers. However, it was the shocked expression that graced Vala's face that caused a pit of worry to open in his stomach. “What?” he nervously asked, removing his hand from his face. “What's wrong?”

“Leto?” she whispered in a horrified tone.

“Did you know him?” he asked, “did Qetesh know him?”

“Her,” she absently corrected him before muttering, “those idiots...”

“Vala!” he shouted, as she suddenly tore away and ran towards the main hall. “Wait!”

He managed to catch up with her just as she launched into a tirade at the nearest Tok'ra council members gathered in the main hall, saying, “You are all idiots!”

That got their attention as everyone in the hall stopped talking and stared at Vala. Daniel sheepishly took Vala's arm and tried to guide her away but she was having none of it, and yanked her arm away. “Do you know who you just executed?!” Without waiting for an answer, she continued to say, “You just executed the one Tok'ra who saved your collective asses from extinction. You just executed the one who ensured that Egeria's children had a future!”

“Please, do explain,” a strong voice spoke up in the silence, and Daniel saw Garshaw walk forward, carrying herself quite proudly. “Explain how Leto, known murderer of thousands under Ba'al, was the one to save the Tok'ra from extinction. Please do tell us, how should we justify our existence to such a Goa'uld who had somehow survived all these years, only to finally end up in one of our presumed dead operatives?”

“Qetesh,” Vala said, her voice trembling with anger. “Leto served Qetesh and eventually Egeria. You know that Egeria and Qetesh were rival consorts of Ra, but they were also allies for a time when Ba'al encroached upon their domains. Leto originally served Ba'al but her defection from his forces to serve Qetesh and Egeria was a great blow in terms of his technological warfare capabilities. Her specialty was crystal technology creation and modification. Ba'al had been utilizing that technology to gain an advantage and push into Ra's territories while he was occupied with fighting Anubis. I do not remember why Leto decided to defect, but in order to curry favor from both Qetesh and Egeria, she offered them the same technology that she had built for Ba'al. Leto ensured that Qetesh's personal ship had unique touches and constant upgrades, especially in terms of crystal technology.

“Somehow in all of this, Leto developed a separate alliance with Egeria and helped draw early attention away from Egeria and her rebellious tendencies. When Ra started to send assassins after Egeria, Leto withdrew and tried to hide Egeria. Unfortunately, many of her developed technology was in the hands of Qetesh, who by then, had discovered the duplicity and was using crystal technology against both of them. However, Leto managed sneak back into Qetesh's territories and gained access to Qetesh's private quarters. She modified the crystals in Qetesh's personal sarcophagus. When Qetesh used it, it temporarily detached the host from the Goa'uld. Qetesh's host then accessed Qetesh's files and with Leto's help, purged all crystal technology from the databases and destroyed many prototypes. Unfortunately, the effects of the modified sarcophagus were short-lived and Qetesh regained control of her host, forcing Leto to flee. Qetesh also ensured that the sarcophagus was replaced, but I do not remember if it had been destroyed or not.

“By this time, Egeria's rebellion had gained the attention other system lords, though Qetesh did not fully join them in the hunt. I only remember a small amount of what happened, but it seemed that Leto ran all over the galaxy, with Qetesh attempting to hunt her down. However, everywhere Qetesh went, she was thwarted by rebel Goa'uld, and I think Leto was the one who was ensuring that Egeria's children were growing into the Tok'ra resistance. After word reached Qetesh that Egeria had been captured and killed, she stopped pursing Leto and returned to Ra's side to curry as much favor as possible to become Queen Consort. I do not know of Leto's fate after that.”

“That makes sense,” Daniel said as soon as Vala was done, still looking quite angry at the semi-stoic faces of the Tok'ra, though some of them were looking slightly horrified. In a way, it made perfect sense, but then what had happened to Leto after all these years? Had the rebel Goa'uld been sealed in a canopic jar like Egeria had? As he thought about it, he realized with dread lining his stomach – had Leto been hiding in Aldwin and previous hosts all this time; only to be killed at Revanna and revived via sarcophagus?

He took a step forward, putting a comforting hand on Vala's arm as he said, “According to Greek mythology, Leto was the mother of Artemis and Apollo, both of whom were fathered by Zeus, the ruler of Olympus. But fearing the eye and wrath of Hera, Zeus' queen, for the lands below were sealed off to her, she wandered, looking for a safe haven to give birth to her children. Eventually, she found a floating island, not tethered to the ground, and there, her children were born. If the mythos is true, it could very well be that Leto did indeed, ensure that Egeria's children were born safely and away from the eyes of Ra and other system lords, until they matured.”

By this time, he could see the concern etched upon many faces of the Tok'ra, with many of them murmuring to themselves. He knew that what he was about to ask was going to take a great leap of faith, and was most likely going to destroy the mentality of most Tok'ra with respect to how they viewed Goa'uld. However, with what he knew from his archaeological studies, it had to be done. The Tok'ra had to know if they had been justified in the execution of a minor system lord who could have been subtly helping them. “When did Leto reappear within the ranks of the minor system lords?”

“About five, nearly six years ago,” Garshaw answered, breaking the silence. “After the appearance and confirmation of Anubis' rise to power again, along with the confirmation of the major system lords supporting him, many minor ones started pledging their allegiance to him. Our operatives told of a surge of minor ones, even those who had been indentured as vassals under the likes of Morrigan, Ba'al, and others, started to support Anubis and took a more active role in trying to further eliminate our numbers. Leto was one of the few who was not directly targeting us, but from ancient ruins that we found and spoke of Leto from long before, his or rather her augmenting Ba'al was something that greatly concerned us.”

“Vala, do you remember what Ba'al or Qetesh's technological capabilities look like back when Leto was allied with either?” he asked.

Vala shook her head, saying, “I do not, though I do remember how the crystal configuration of the modified sarcophagus looked quite well. It seems that Qetesh's host at that time, burned it into her memory to spite her captor.”

“If Leto was indeed helping us, it still does not justify the thousands she has killed in the name of Ba'al or Anubis,” Per'sus spoke up, making his way to the front of the gathered Tok'ra. “If she was helping us, then she would not have waited all of these years or allowed us to sacrifice resources and people to bring Anubis, Ba'al, or other system lords to justice. She was a murderer.”

“Then you are an idiot to think that way,” Vala spat out, crossing her arms over her chest. “The Asgard, Tau'ri, and others who have actively fought against the system lords can also be labeled as murderers as Leto was. Even I can be labeled as one, after all, under Qetesh's influence, I killed over 10,000 Jaffa and possibly a few of your operatives.”

Silence greeted her words as she stared at each and every Tok'ra gathered around, before continuing to crossly say, “If you are willing to forgo the blame for everyone involved in the long war and look at the benefits, then I have to ask you this: who gave you this symbiote extractor technology? Did Leto use her expertise in crystal technology to give you basic specifications to build this? Because this--” she uncrossed her arms and waved a hand towards the contraption-- “this to me, and to the memories I have, seems to work in a similar fashion, just like the modified sarcophagus she built.”

“A-Aldwin,” a nervous voice spoke up, and across from where Vala was standing, Daniel saw a group of Tok'ra part to the sides, revealing Anise. There was a stricken look on her face. “Aldwin was the one who started working on the extractor, using what the Tollan had as a base design once we discovered that za'tarcs were among us. We know that the Tollan's extractor did not have a 100% success rate, and he wanted to improve upon the technology. Before they died, Lantash and Martouf were among the most vocal against the improvement of such technology, citing that they would rather have the host killed with the symbiote to spare the host from reliving such horrific memories.”

“Did any of you know who Aldwin's symbiote was?” Daniel hesitatingly asked.

A few heads shook negative, but a moment later, he saw Malek step forward, as if protecting Anise from accusatory eyes of their fellow Tok'ra and answered, “Aldwin's symbiote's name was Wadjet.”

“Wadjet is the Egyptian goddess who was the protector of kings and women in childbirth,” Daniel said, feeling his breath briefly leave him with dread replacing it. “She was _the_ definitive goddess associated with the protection of ancient Egypt and Eye of Ra in mythology.” Here it was, proof that indeed, the symbiote that the Tok'ra had just executed was their long-lived protector.

“Tau'ri texts say that in your ancient Egypt, historians determined that Wadjet's equivalent to Grecian mythos was Leto,” Anise whispered, finishing his thoughts as he caught her eyes, full of remorse.

Daniel looked away, knowing that what was done was now done. However, he could not help but wonder; the Eye of Ra, even though was of a different form than what Earth archaeologists had interpreted it to be, were the set of six crystals that Anubis had collected. Had Wadjet, or rather Leto, been the creator of such a weapon...or was its original purpose supposed to be some sort of protective barrier?

“But...why?” he asked, turning to stare at the extractor. If Leto had been in possession of all of her faculties and was not the corrupt Goa'uld that the Tok'ra had thought her to be, then why did she choose death over life? Was it because she wanted to die because of the weight of killing so many while serving Ba'al? It was a question he knew that only Aldwin, whenever he awoke, would be able to answer...if he felt like answering.

~◊~

_~7.9-8.1 years after the death of Ra..._

 

An explosion of light burst forth from the heart of the lotus-like ship as bolts of energy struck all of the other ships ringed around it in a haphazard, circular-like fashion. As each bolt of energy seemed to zip from the massive ball of energy centered around the blooming lotus weapon and into the ships, a spectacular reaction was happening on all ships. They were disintegrating into pieces, being ripped apart not only by the Eye of Ra, but also from the system overload that the weapon was pouring into their cores.

Leto flicked the switch to shut down the projected footage that had been taken by a remote camera that she had had Dian attach to one of the ships in Yu's fleet. With Ba'al's blessing, Dian had snuck into Yu's territories under the guise of gathering some information on Yu's activities. Though she was aware that Ba'al had the best spy network out of all the Goa'uld, it was incomparable to those of the Tok'ra, thus Dian was able to plant the camera without anyone knowing the wiser.

Now, Dian was presenting the information to Ba'al, and though it seemed like it was something that she should be doing, she felt that it was time to reveal to Ba'al that they had a better grasp on espionage than Ba'al's own network. She hoped that it would continue to give them a longer leash under Ba'al.

Now though, she was worried, but from her host, she could feel nothing – Aldwin's shocked silence was still echoing through their shared space. She didn't blame her host for not being able to recover as quickly as she did; her memories of the destructive power of the Eye of Ra from ancient days was something that she had specifically hidden from all of her hosts thus far. She cherished her host, but she knew that darker days were to come, and they would have to take actions that would even make the most staunch of Tok'ra's actions seem tame. It was as she had told her host before – to destroy a system lord, one had to become that which they were trying to destroy.

Spread out before her, on the crystal displays were several schematics and ideas that she had toyed around with since Ba'al's departure to retrieve the Eye of Ra crystals. Ba'al had returned to his homeworld only two months before, having found two of the six crystals. Anubis had taken them and searched for the rest himself. Her warnings to Ba'al about the crystals had been ignored, as she had predicted, and now, he, along with all other system lords were reaping what was sown.

_**Leto**_ **,** she heard Aldwin quietly say her name.

_**Yes, my dear?** _

_**Will you please show me what you did before you pledged yourself to Egeria?** _ Her movements of her host's hands along the displayed slowed as she fell silent in their shared space. _**Please, Leto,**_ he begged. _ **I...I need to know...**_

_**If I will not betray you in our quest to rid the galaxy of the Goa'uld?**_ she asked, withdrawing her hands from the display and hung them limply by her side.

_**No,**_ he whispered, and she could feel his virtual self encircle her in a warm embrace. The sensation she felt from him was similar to that of a young brother worried about an elder sister departing for death and warfare, unable to stop her. An unbidden memory surfaced in their linked minds, that of a young Aldwin embracing his elder sister before her sister had been forcibly taken away to become a consort-slave for the Goa'uld that ruled their planet. What little Aldwin remembered of that time was only from whispered stories told in passing; that her sister had attempted to slew the Goa'uld in the middle of making love – Aldwin's elder sister had gone willingly to war and to her death in order to save her family.

_**I want to know, Leto,**_ he said, holding on to her. **_Your name that you had forsaken for so long, and even when you lied to Malek and told him that you were Wadjet... He never knew you, but I know you – why have you taken up the name again? Why forsake your pledge to Egeria, your queen?_**

_**Because, Aldwin**_ **,** she began, sorrow filling her, _**there will be a time when I can no longer live. There will be a time when the Goa'uld are all defeated and peace has settled over the galaxy. That is when you must carry out my last wish – Egeria's final command to me before she disappeared.**_ Taking a deep mental breath, she opened up her memories and flooded the space. _**This is who I am, Aldwin.**_

Demon.

Temptress.

Egomaniac.

Dictator.

Narcissist.

Empress.

Goa'uld.

Rebel.

Tok'ra.

They were so engulfed in the memories of old that neither of them saw or heard the door to their laboratory briefly slide open, enough to let a cloaked assassin in. It was only when an alarming spike of pain, starting from their stomach and slowly beating its way up towards their heart, did they break off from sharing memories. She could feel fire burning through their veins as she felt Aldwin collapse into a ball of agony and looked through hazy eyes to see a faint shimmer in the air...

_**Ashrak!** _

The single thought, echoed by both of them, managed to push most of the pain away from the poisoned blade that was sticking out of their stomach. A spike of adrenaline surged through their body and Leto immediately struck with her right hand, jabbing straight into the neck of the Ashrak. She heard a faint gurgle and knew that she had struck true. Roughly estimating the size of the assassin, she then stepped and spun to the left side, pulling the blade out of her stomach and immediately wrapped her right arm around the neck of the Ashrak. Wasting little time as she felt the solid contact between her choke hold on the assassin and the assassin flailing against her body, she jammed the blade into the assassin's neck.

The cloak that had been wrapped around the Ashrak had fizzled slightly but had not completely died as the assassin heaved once, twice, wheezing before going limp. She dropped the semi-transparent dead body to the ground, just as she heard the door slide open again. However, with the poison already doing its work faster than she could counteract it, she collapsed to the ground, just as she felt someone catch her.

“Aldwin!” she heard a familiar voice hiss as the world around her spun and flashed in and out of darkness. “Leto!”

“Ashrak,” she managed to whisper, trying to identify her attacker. Her host was almost dead from the poison running through them, and she could feel herself quickly slipping away. “S-sarcophagus...”

She didn't hear what else Dian said as his voice became muddled and the white-hot agony lancing through them started to disappear into a cold darkness...

Only to be replaced by a prickly sensation that sent arcs of pain shooting up nerves and dead cells as they were regenerated Hearts restarted as blood flowed from place to place, bringing much needed life and a moment later, the consciousness of both Leto and Aldwin came rushing back to fill the void. Moments later, with the job completed, the sarcophagus slowly opened, allowing fresh air to waft in.

A headache pounded like the drums of war and she could feel her host retreat from the forefront of consciousness, trying to deal with it while she blinked and slowly sat up. The coldness of the sarcophagus always felt like a blade in itself and a moment later, she remembered exactly why she and her host had been placed in one. Looking around, she saw Dian standing on the other side of the room in a pensive manner.

Cautiously getting out, she walked over to where he was and saw what exactly had caught his attention. Lying on the table was the Ashrak, stripped of its armor, cloaking device, and helmet. The Ashrak was quite dead, but it was the symbol etched on the Ashrak's forehead that caused her host to come forward again.

“Tanith,” Dian spat out.

“He is supposed to be dead,” she pointed out, reigning in her host's anger as best as possible. “Tollana was destroyed and a scout ship sighted debris not only from weapons that had been discharged in space, but also from the ship in orbit.”

“Knowing a servant of Anubis, there is little chance that the dead will stay dead,” her fellow Tok'ra said.

“If it is indeed Tanith risen again, then he should know that after Anubis' demonstration above Abydos, we will be the least of his concerns.” Even though both she and her host felt quite incensed at the fact that the Goa'uld was not dead, they could not linger on what had or had not passed.

“Yes, unless Anubis does suspect us of deceit and has not informed Ba'al yet. Anubis may have sent Tanith to remove us from Ba'al's alliance, after all, we have been producing weaponry that could one day challenge his rule even with the Eye of Ra.”

“Perhaps,” she said, nodding in agreement. If indeed Anubis had specifically sent Tanith to deal with them, then they would have to take action. “Trace this and see where it goes. If it does lead back to Tanith, strike where you think it will hurt him the most and inform the Tok'ra. I am sure that they would love to capture him after all that he has done. I shall deal with Ba'al.”

“Even though he is considering fighting against Anubis now that the power of the Eye of Ra is a clear threat against all of us?” Dian asked.

“Even more so. If the system lords are still willing to band together, as shown by the small fleet that Yu took to Abydos, we will need safeguards in place for when Anubis is defeated.”

She saw Dian give her a disbelieving look before he said, “You have seen what the Eye of Ra can do. Do you really believe that the system lords will be able to defeat him?”

“If they ally with the Tau'ri, they might.”

“Your faith in those people is _so_ reassuring.”

Ignoring the sarcastic comment, she stepped away and walked back to the console that had her scattered schematics still displayed. “There is a certain diabolical ruthlessness to the Tau'ri, and I am hoping that in the coming weeks, they will use that to their advantage.”

~◊~

“You did raise your hands up when Colonel O'Neill asked if the plan was 'insane', right?”

Malek raised his head slightly up from reading the parchment-printed reports he had been given a few minutes ago by the two Tok'ra operatives he had sent to Earth to help the Tau'ri. The two operatives silently nodded. It had been Gant, in an skeptical tone, who had asked that question.

The operatives had been sent at the request of the Council to help the Tau'ri with their plan to take out Anubis' new superweapon, powered by the six deadly crystals. They had reported back to him after informing the Council of the operation and with what the Council had decided upon. Though he would never say it, for it was not his place to, the Tau'ri woman, Gant, voiced his own opinion of the crazy plan that might just work.

There were only five of them in this small cell, including Gant; with the rest of those who had survived Raisa sent back to the other cells. In the past months since Raisa and the discovery of their long-lost queen, Egeria, he and the four other Tok'ra, plus Gant, had moved from planet to planet, taking only the necessary weapons and supplies with them. Tunneling crystals, elaborate chemicals, explosives, anything they had previously used had been left behind on the other bases. Gant had told them that by running 'in the dark', they could scavenge and build whatever they needed using what they had on hand, thereby making it harder for Jaffa and Goa'uld to track them. It was also why reports were written on parchment paper and kept as short as possible – easier to burn and erase. This method of warfare kept them alert, kept them very sharp and aware of their surroundings; taking care that each sabotage, each implantation of false information, or assassination of a local minor Goa'uld lord was done to maximize chaos within the ranks of the Jaffa and locals who served the Goa'uld.

It was different from their old ways of implanting their selves on ships or on a planet, staying for a certain amount of time to relay as much information back to other operatives or to the Council. Time was valuable, and each action that Malek and his cell took relied upon the most up-to-date information from locals they befriended or coerced into helping them. They did not wait for Council deliberations or orders to carry out their mission, and he was well aware that the Council did not approve of their actions – calling them brash and similar to the SG teams.

There was always the risk of their capture by the enemy, and thus it was also why Malek had limited his cell to only four of them, with Gant supporting their actions. The two operatives that he sent to meet with the Tau'ri had stepped through the chappa'ai to another world where they met up with another Tok'ra from the High Council's base. None of them knew where the High Council was based, and using recovered Tollan long-range communication devices, had only been contacted by other operatives whenever the Council needed to speak to them.

A three-toned sound beeped from the Tollan communicator lying on the make-shift table that belonged to the stump of a rather old and large tree. The area on the planet that they were currently on was yet another deeply wooded and creature-filled forest, but still close enough to the chappa'ai that they could easily dial another planet if need be. The communicator was their only piece of electro-magnetic transmitting tech that they dared to have. They were not expecting a call so soon for the Tau'ri operation to begin. Picking up the communicator, he clicked the receiver three times.

There was a series of three clicks, followed by two long clicks and he said, “Go.”

“The Council has sent someone to Hranash with information concerning the Ba'al's new system lord ally, Leto,” a faint and tinny voice came through the receiver.

“We will send for pick up. Tell them thank you,” he answered and gave a nod towards Xau who promptly left. One of the last things he had requested from the Council after his cell had sent the remains of Egeria and her host back for a proper funeral was for any information they could find about Leto. Even though Selmak did not know of the system lord, Malek suspected that Leto might have appeared before the Tok'ra started fighting against the Goa'uld. Osiris's time in a stasis jar, along with Egeria's fate had been proven wrong, and thus he had a feeling that information about Leto could possibly be found.

“Rest, Risune, Brisa,” he told the two operatives. “We will need all of our strength to attack when the signal comes in.”

The two Tok'ra operatives gave grateful nods to him and left, and he returned his attention to the report in his hands. While the mission to destroy Anubis' mothership was ongoing, Malek and his team would strike at the heart of where Ba'al was currently building his fleet. Nirrti's death at the hands of SG-1 a couple of months ago had given his team an advantage, for they had successfully raided one of her facilities and acquired cloaking modules. They would be using said modules today to get into the shipyards, overload the cores of several ships, and get out. If the Tau'ri plan worked, then when Anubis fell, Ba'al would not have the advantage to rise up and become the dominant system lord.

The only unfortunate part was the fact that they had only acquired four cloaking modules before the remnants of Nirrti's loyal Jaffa had discovered them. For this particular mission, Gant had volunteered to stay behind while the four of them carried out the mission, citing that she did not know enough about Goa'uld ships as the rest of them did. He had to admit that she had a point – they needed to think fast whenever they attacked, and for this particular mission, it would involve most of the knowledge acquired by their symbiotes.

“I'm surprised that your people were able to find information about Leto so quickly,” Gant spoke up as he finished reading the report and tossed them into the campfire. “Did they plant operatives inside of Ba'al's forces?”

Watching the parchment curl and blacken with the flames slowly eating it, he said, “If they did, we will not stop for them. Tok'ra strike operations have always had a habit of encroaching into other on-going operations and can be very fluid. If there is an operative within Ba'al's forces, he or she will know to stay out of the way.”

Their wait for the Tok'ra who had been sent to them was short, for a few minutes later, the snap of twigs and branches that had fallen to the ground alerted him to people approaching. With a hand resting on his zat'nik'tel, he waited with a held breath and finally, parting a few bushes aside, Xau stepped through. She was followed by the unlikeliest person.

“Freya,” he said, allowing a faint smile to grace his face as he felt his host cheer up at the sight of an old friend. Removing his hand from his zat'nik'tel, he approached and embraced her for a long moment before releasing her and stepped back. It had been over a year since he had seen her, and she still looked the same, albeit he saw that the light her expressive eyes had dimmed considerably. With all that had happened, he wasn't surprised that she was much more quiet, less prone to emotional outbursts.

“It's been quite a while, Malek,” she said, withdrawing her datapad from the satchel she carried. “When we received word that you needed information on this new system lord, Anise jumped on the chance to help, and so, we finally found what you might need.”

“Ack, wait!” Gant said, just before Freya activated the datapad. “E-M field on that thing!”

“Pardon?” Freya asked, looking quite confused, her hand hovering over the depressed slot that would activate the datapad.

However, Malek saw the Tau'ri scramble towards where her pack was and yank out a crinkly, foil-like object. The object was unfurled and to him, it looked like a covering of some sort. “Xau, please help me tack this up,” Gant said. A few moments later, with the foil covering spread overhead, Gant returned, dusting her hands, saying, “Makeshift Faraday cage.”

It was only because of his host that he knew what she meant, but still, he did not reveal his knowledge or the identity of his host and instead, said, “Something to block the electo-magnetic field that emanates from Freya's datapad?”

“Yep,” the woman answered. “It can block out the long-range communicator too, but I moved it away.”

“Good,” he answered, nodding, before gesturing to Gant and said to Freya, “I would like to introduce you to Lauren Gant, an expert among the Tau'ri in subversive warfare. Jacob was kind enough to include her in my cell.”

“My pleasure,” Freya said, bowing slightly before returning her attention to the datapad and activated it. She handed the datapad over to him and he took it, scrolling through the first file, which was quite large. “We found evidence of a Goa'uld named Leto, who ruled over several domains that are now within Ba'al's territories,” Freya explained. “Apparently, he was an adviser to Ba'al long ago before something happened to him. According to the ruins on one of the worlds on the fringes of Ba'al's territories, it seemed that Leto had a falling out with Ba'al and was captured and possibly killed a little less than two thousand years ago. There are some evidence pointing that perhaps Leto had instead, been captured and imprisoned much like Egeria had. We think that perhaps Leto was removed from imprisonment and given amnesty, when Anubis made himself known. As arrogant as Ba'al is for a system lord, he might have thought that Anubis was of a bigger threat and successfully convinced Leto to renew their alliance.”

“Did the ruins provide any reason as to Leto's break in alliance with Ba'al?” he asked as he scrolled over to the next file, a cold feeling creeping into his stomach as he continued to read and listen to Freya's explanation.

“No,” she answered. “Most of the ruins only spoke of the technological capabilities that he provided Ba'al and how their alliance actually put them in direct contention with Ra. Together, both Ba'al and Leto actually had enough power to challenge Ra for rule over the galaxy.”

At his friend's words, he stopped scrolling and looked up, the ice in his stomach becoming a solid block that seemed to chill his entire body. The conspicuous silence of his host in their shared mind-space was also contributing to the dread. If Anubis was not enough of a threat to the entire galaxy, then the build up of forces from Ba'al, augmented by a supposedly long-dead system lord who had re-allied himself to Ba'al, was even worse. The Tau'ri were at the forefront of fighting against the half-ascended Ancient Anubis, but if Anubis was fully augmented by a Ba'al-Leto alliance...

_**We are so fucked,**_ he heard his host mutter.

“The third and fourth files have what we could translate and capture of the weapons that their alliance built,” Freya said, as he glanced back down and brought up the two files that she had indicated. “Fortunately,” she continued, “most of the weapons have been destroyed or were lost during the long in-fighting between the system lords. Some of them were prototypes of what the system lords now constantly use. But given their resources now, the Council thinks its doubtful that they will be able to create anything entirely new and only be able to augment current technologies.”

“Unless somehow, both of them manage to do something with gravity fields,” he said, grimly scrolling through the weapons files.

“I were always under the impression that Goa'uld did not invent new technology or weapons and scavenged most of their tech from other races,” Gant spoke up, drawing his attention back to the others. “Are you saying that Ba'al and Leto actually subverted all expectations and actually created new stuff?”

“Yes,” Freya answered, nodding. “Though we are not Goa'uld, we are of the same species. Tok'ra have also scavenged tech, but we do have a few items that we've created ourselves, such as the za'tarc detector.”

“All right, so we should still hit Ba'al when SG-1 tries to pull off their crazy stunt,” the Tau'ri woman said, slamming a fist into an open palm. “But given the alliance between Ba'al and Leto, and given that Anubis has already used that to his advantage to plant Ashrak agents on the fringes of his own territory, I think we really should concentrate our efforts on Leto instead.”

“I agree,” Malek answered, feeling his host also agree to the assessment, despite being slightly anxious about the information that they had just received. “Do you have translations of these files into the Tau'ri language, Freya?”

“I do,” she answered, taking the datapad back from him and tapped a few things on the screen before handing it back to him.

“Gant, while we are gone--” he began, handing the Tau'ri woman the datapad.

“Got it in one, chief,” the woman answered in a chirpy tone. “I'm going to have this bastard's weak spots pinpointed when you guys get back.”

~~~

_**Three, no four Jaffa approaching,**_ his host whispered to him as his fingers flew over the various crystals and plucked out the necessary ones that were needed to overload the ship's core. Though his eyes, fingers, and mind were on the task at hand, it was his host who augmented his awareness. He was cloaked, but was not reliant on the technology to complete his portion of mission.

He could feel hist host urging him to finish the reconfiguration faster as the sounds of booted feet increased in volume. The Jaffa would not be able to see him, but they would still be able to see that a panel on the column had been removed and that crystals inside were being manipulated. Inserting the last few crystals, he jammed the panel back on, just as the first of four Jaffa entered the area.

Standing as still as possible, he slowed his breathing down as the Jaffa separated and started to walk on the narrow walkways that crisscrossed the core area of the ship. He had at least ten minutes to vacate the ship before it exploded, but there was currently a Jaffa on the narrow walkway that led to where he was, blocking his escape. Shifting ever so slightly, he carefully navigated his way around the column and the thin grating under his feet. The column was situated on the grating that was no wider than two average human shoulder lengths for its radius. The abyss below hummed with unseen machinery and churned high-grade naquadah that powered the entire ship.

Just as the Jaffa approached the edge of the circular grating, Malek reached the other side and slipped past the Jaffa. Quickly but carefully making his way back up to the wider and safer walkways, he could feel his host sigh with relief as they made it to more solid ground. However, he did not break into a run, for the walkways here were metal and even though his boots were not heavy, they could still be heard if the right pressure was applied to the walkway.

Walking as quickly as he dared, he finally made it out of the core of the ship and broke into a run. With light steps, he passed many Jaffa, careful that he kept to the walls as much as possible to prevent any breeze from reaching the patrols as he made his way to the nearest ring room. Before activating the door to the room, he checked to see if the coast was clear and pressed the buttons. Slipping inside and pressing buttons to close the door, he did not remove his cloak and instead, programmed the ring to send him out of the ship. Pulling out his zatniktel, he kept it activated and stood in the center of the ring just as the familiar sounds of the rings ascended from the floor and transported him away.

As soon as the rings cleared and deposited him on the ground, he warily looked around, weapon pointed and sighted. The coast was clear, but he kept his weapon out as he ran away. Three minutes until the ship exploded.

Patrols covered the flattened and burned plains where the shipyard was, as he made his way past various cargo ships, stacked supplies, and even spot-manufacturing areas. The air was saturated with smoke and the smell of burning fuel, nearly choking him. The ground was not muddy, but he still had to be careful in where he stepped, remembering that it was the footprints of the Ashrak on the Tau'ri Alpha Site that had given the assassin away. As much as he wanted to unleash his weapon and shoot all of the Jaffa here dead, he knew that it would be a foolish venture. He needed to get as clear of the area as possible so that when the ship did explode, he would not be caught in the chaos, for the chances of someone running into his invisible self would be almost guaranteed.

Thirty seconds before the ship exploded, there was quite a loud echo of a boom, and he saw Jaffa stop with what they were doing, looking around in alarm. Moments later, the shouts of rebels echoed through the valley as the Jaffa responded to the explosion. He increased his pace and managed to make it to the edge of a treeline before a powerful explosion sent him flat into the ground. It was rapidly followed by a searing wave of heat as he managed to look back and see what remains of the ship go up in flames. Unfortunately, the explosion had not vaporized the outer parts of the ship and now, chunks of fiery debris was flying down upon all of them.

Though he was still stunned from the impact, he scrambled up, managing to keep a hold of his zat'nik'tel in the chaos, but noticed that the air around him was flickering slightly. Whether it was because of the explosion, the impact, or something related to the two, his cloaking device was no longer properly working. It was definitely time to go.

The _zat-zat_ of seared heat whizzed over his head as he glanced behind and saw several Jaffa shooting at him, having seen the semi-transparent outline of his form. Scrambling up, he fired a few wild shots behind him, managing to stop the barrage of staff weapon fire for a moment and sprinted deeper into the woods.

Super-heated dirt, splinters of wood, and perilously close shots bloomed around him as the Jaffa gave chase. His run didn't adhere to a linear fashion and instead, he ducked over fallen rotten logs, jumped over brambles and branches, and ran from cover to cover as he made his way to the chappa'ai. Sheathing his weapon, he knew that he needed to lose his tail if he wanted to make it to the clearing and into the chappa'ai alive, and so he increased his pace.

Faster than what a normal unblended human could run at, he sent a surge of naquadah through his host's blood, locking down hist host's body so that everything he did contributed to pure speed. It was akin to how a Goa'uld maintained absolute control over their host, but for the purposes of escape and survival, it was necessary. To maintain a balance between host and symbiote, the body functions were slightly augmented, but given enough room so that either host or symbiote could take over actions at any time – supporting the Tok'ra philosophy. Body control was the one physical difference between how the Tok'ra and Goa'uld operated.

Green and browns of the forest blurred as he ran, outpacing the slower Jaffa with their bulky armor and weapons. As the thick forest gradually became thinner, he could see light slowly filtering through the leaves and knew that he was getting close to the chappa'ai. Several steps before he cleared the forest, he saw the unconscious or dead bodies of a few Jaffa lying against the trees, and knew that someone from his team had already made it to the chappa'ai first. However, the conspicuous hum of an active chappa'ai was absent.

Unsheathing his zat'nik'tel just as he cleared the forest, he also picked up a staff weapon with his other hand. Beyond the forest and into the clearing, he saw the dead body of Brisa, lying against the dialing device with a few burnt holes in her back. Shunting aside the sorrow of loosing one of his teammates and another of what little there were of the Tok'ra, he focused his thoughts towards escaping. Six Jaffa were already surrounding the gate and they were turning towards where he was. Firing three steady blue lances from his zat'nik'tel, Brisa's body was instantly gone as he re-sheathed the weapon and brought the staff weapon to bear.

The first three golden blasts from his staff weapon hit the further three of the Jaffa true, as he poured more speed into his movements, ignoring the pain of his host's body being pushed past its limits, crawling through him. The fourth Jaffa attempted to shoot him as he dodged and charged in but was met with a succession of two staff blasts. The next Jaffa received a blow to his head as he twirled and swung the butt end of the staff weapon into him and fired backwards, felling the sixth one who had attempted to ambush him from behind.

Quickly flipping the weapon around, he fired off one last blast, nearly point blank, into the face of the Jaffa before the Jaffa could recover. The smell of ozone and charred flesh hung in the air around him, but he did not relinquish control as he deactivated the weapon and hurried to the dialing device. Inputting the coordinates, he wasted little time as the chappa'ai activated with a _woosh_ and ran into the blue horizon.

On the other side of the horizon, he plowed through and got down several steps before noticing that three zat'nik'tels were pointed straight at him. Xau and Risune had made it back to their temporary base, and Gant and Anise had met up with them. As the chappa'ai shut down behind him, the zat'nik'tels were cautiously deactivated and he finally eased control over his host's body. Immediately, his sight blurred as the rush of his host's presence returned, but neither had the strength to maintain standing – Malek had used up too much of his host's strength, augmenting his own through the naquadah-saturated blood.

Hands grabbed his arms and steadied him as he dimly heard his staff weapon clatter to the ground. Blinking and trying to bring their vision back to focus, he sent a heartfelt apology to his host for doing what he had done. There was a faint reply from his host, but he wasn't sure if the apology had been accepted or not. “Brisa,” he managed to say, feeling quite parched and dizzy. “Brisa...is dead...”

“Malek!” he heard Gant angrily shout, though it sounded faint to him as both he and his host struggled to stand up. They couldn't stay, not on this planet anymore – the coordinates to the planet could have been compromised as he went through, and they needed to move bases.

“We need to move now,” he heard the muddled voice of Xau say. “We can heal him at our new base.”

“Start dialing, Risune,” Gant ordered as he felt both him and his host slipping into warm enclosure of darkness. There was a sharp, stinging pain that suddenly bloomed across his cheek, briefly snapping him awake as he heard the Tau'ri woman say, “You, you crazy bastard, are going to stay awake.”

He could feel himself being shifted into a standing position, with his arms loped around the bony shoulders of Anise and around Gant. His host had also been briefly awakened by the slap but was slowly sliding back to the depths of unconsciousness. Blearily, he could see the glowing blue horizon of the chappa'ai again, and slowly with help from the two supporting him, they managed to climb the stairs and cross the horizon.

When he next awoke, it was to a feeling of warmth being spread across his body as he blinked and felt his host also sleepily yawn in their shared space. The next sensation was that of hunger, but it was not a gnawing kind, though he knew that he felt quite weak. As he blinked, seeing a canopy of trees start to become more focused, he became aware that the warmth spread throughout his body died down, and that it was quite humid, though the air temperature around him was relatively mild.

He heard a noise beside him and looked over to see Anise putting away a healing device before she turned back to him, giving him a sad smile. “You should not have done that to your host or yourself, Malek,” she gently admonished. “Between you and your host, both of you burned too much energy that even the healing device was having trouble trying to heal at first.”

He said nothing to her words, knowing that it was futile to even justify his perceived actions. She did not need to know that he had forcibly suppressed his host in the escape, having done it time and again to all of his previous hosts. In order to survive and complete missions, he had broken tenants that separated the physical and philosophical differences between the Tok'ra and Goa'uld.

Most of his hosts had forgiven him for his actions, and those that didn't remained silent and only vowed to continue to fight against the Goa'uld so long as he did not betray their trust again. He never did betray their trust again after the first time. Instead he remained silent, feeling his host stir and become fully awake, though he could feel some anger from his host at what he had done. Only time would tell if his host fell into one of the two categories.

Anise leaned over and gently pressed her lips to his forehead, just as he heard footsteps approach. “Um...I can come back later...” he heard Gant say as Anise leaned back and he saw the embarrassed face of the Tau'ri woman looking whichever way.

He understood how Anise's gesture towards him must have looked, but he was not embarrassed as Gant apparently was. The chaste kiss upon his forehead was his friend's usual way of saying that she was glad he was all right. “You are not disturbing anything,” he stated, as he regained control of his limbs and slowly sat up. To Anise, he said, “Thank you.”

Fortunately, he had to give Gant some credit in her professionalism, for the embarrassment all but disappeared with her next words as she said, “We got word that the Tau'ri's attempt to destroy the Eye of Ra was successful, but Yu's fleet did not show up to destroy the ship.”

“Damn,” he muttered as he felt his host's frustration bleed through. He was still hungry, but it seemed there was more to the intelligence that Gant and the others had gathered and therefore, there was no time to waste. Carefully getting up from the makeshift bed of leafy branches he had been lying on, he let the slight dizziness subside before saying, “What else do you have?”

“Last we heard, the ship is above the homeworld of SG-1 team member, Jonas Quinn, and that there is a plan underway,” Gant said, sweeping an arm open for him to join them at the new 'table' that had been carved out of moved boulders. He approached and saw various parchment-written schematics and diagrams of facilities. “It seems that Anubis wants to try to incorporate naquadria to fix and re-power the Eye of Ra. Apparently, Teal'c had been sent to Yu's forces prior to the attack and has contacted SG-1 on the planet. There will be a plan to select a new leader for the system lords.”

“We suspect that it will be Ba'al, who will be offered the position,” Xau spoke up.

“What better chance than to attempt to destroy Anubis' ship, salvage the remains and attempt to incorporate whatever is needed into his weaponry,” Gant stated.

“Given the complexity of Anubis's ship and the weaponry, he will most likely take Leto with him if he acquiesce to leading the forces,” Anise spoke up from beside him, as she handed him a canteen of water and one of Gant's Tau'ri energy bars that tasted absolutely horrible. He could not complain about the food though – he needed the food.

“So we should strike then,” he said, chewing as best as he could on the energy bar, while his host made gagging noises in their shared space. “Assuming that Ba'al does accept the position, how long do we have until they strike that world?”

“Less than six hours, but we have already cased a small holding, courtesy of information intercepted by an operative working in the fringes of Ba'al's territories,” Xau said, before looking a bit nervously at Anise. “Apparently, Tanith is still alive, and this is where the information was intercepted from.”

“As if we did not have enough to deal with,” Risune muttered, shaking his head slightly.

Out of the corner of Malek's eyes, he could see Anise paling slightly, but she still held herself strong. He knew that Tanith had greatly affected her in a psychological sense, but as far as he knew, the Goa'uld had not physically harmed her. There was nothing he could do now to help her heal whatever perceived wounds that had been inflicted in her mind from the Goa'uld. Talking with both Freya and Anise had not even begun to heal the damage – only knowing that Tanith had been supposedly dead for a couple of years had begun the healing.

“Either the alliance between Ba'al and Leto has affected Anubis even more than we know and thus he had sent Tanith to deal with it, or Tanith knows something about Leto that we do not,” he said. “If Tanith indeed has a vested interest in ridding the galaxy of Leto, we can use that to our advantage. Any information he leaks will be used by us to get closer to toppling Leto, but we will need a second team to actually capture Tanith – we cannot have him running around with whatever tech Leto will leave behind.”

“Then please allow me to present this case to the Council,” Anise spoke up, her voice firm and strong. “Leto will be yours to catch, but we will steer Tanith in the direction that ensures success for both Goa'ulds' downfall.”

~◊~

The throne room was opulently decorated, but not so much that it screamed vanity from all corners of the universe. Instead, the inlaid golden walls, gold filigreed white marble statues, black marbled floor, and elegant torches of fire gave the throne room a sense of power and of wealth. It also helped that the angular, gold-wrought throne that Ba'al currently lounged upon was adding to that overwhelming display of wealth.

However, as she walked into the room, the elaborate outfit she wore as per her rank within Ba'al's forces, flaring ever so slightly behind her, she ignored all the signs. Even after thousands of years, including a short stint in a containment jar, Ba'al's style seemed to have never changed.

She stopped in the middle of the hall, nearly half-way between the entrance and to where Ba'al was sitting, and knelt down to the ground. “Milord,” she said, bowing her head slightly as she tried to soothe the nervousness that her host had, each time they came to this room. Aldwin had extremely horrific memories of throne rooms, especially since it had been in one that he had been dying in before being rescued by a sympathetic Tok'ra operative named Lysana, taken to a base, and blended with her, Leto.

“Rise, Leto,” Ba'al answered.

She did as he commanded, but remained where she was. “You did not believe me,” she simply stated. It was an extremely insolent fact, and it was no surprise to her that Ba'al's First Prime reacted by raising his staff weapon, activating it, and pointed it straight at her. Still, she gave no outward sign of being ruffled by the gesture, though she could feel her host jump slightly in their shared space.

“My lord,” Ba'al's First Prime said as the minutes of silence dragged out, “shall I execute him?”

“No,” the system lord answered after a moment, waving his hand slightly for his loyal foot soldier to put his weapon away. The weapon was retracted with a click and the soldier returned to attention. A faint smirk of admiration for the audacity displayed graced the system lord's lips as he said, “How kind of you to remind me, Leto. Will you now continue to remind me of all of my failings?”

“Only if you permit me to,” she said, keeping her tone even as she felt Aldwin's fascination at the sparring word play that was unfolding between her and the arrogant system lord. “Truth is a harsh mistress. I say that your failings actually had mostly to do with your performance in bed, and your inability to satisfy me, but that would be a little too much.”

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Ba'al's First Prime raise an eye brow in disbelief and she knew that the First Prime was most definitely going to stew on her words if given time. She and Ba'al were currently not lovers, nor had she offered any sexual services to Ba'al, for the alliance they had made was not primal in nature. Aldwin had explicitly stated that if she ever took the alliance with Ba'al down any type of intimate path, he would kill themselves in a way that not even a sarcophagus could bring them back to life. Her host had then stated that their duty was to bring the downfall of the system lords from within, and she was firmly behind the plan – that did not mean she could mess with people and their perception of the alliance to help boost the confidence and trust of Ba'al's subjects.

It was not entirely necessary though, for she knew that Ba'al had a very keen interest in women who were quite intelligent. It was why their first alliance all those thousands of years ago had been quite successful. It also explained why he had been constantly encroaching on Qetesh's territory back then – he had found Qetesh exquisitely fascinating, and wanted to poach one of Ra's consorts from him. In the present though, Ba'al's eyes had also lingered quite extensively on Osiris' new host. That had immediately been shot down by Osiris himself, who was beyond irritated by all the advances that he had been receiving from other Goa'uld besides Ba'al.

However, Ba'al stated, “That is ancient history. Now, you and I have only renewed this alliance because of what weapons and technology you can provide me to augment my own creations. Do take care in the future to not overstep your bounds, Leto. I may have ignored your warning about the Eye of Ra, but I heard about the attempt on your life by Tanith's assassin. I am all that stands between you and the wrath of Anubis.”

“Then I ask for your forgiveness, milord,” she stated, bowing slightly before straightening again.

Ba'al leaned back on the throne as he draped both arms across the armrests, saying, “Now, what have you to present today?”

“Milord,” she began, “we have identified--”

She was interrupted when another Jaffa hurried into the throne room, knelt on the floor beside her and stated, “We are currently receiving an urgent message from Yu.”

Ba'al narrowed his eyes, as he sat forward. It was well known throughout the entire system lords holdings that Yu had received credible intelligence from the Tau'ri about Anubis' ship over Abydos two months ago. It was also well known that the motley alliance that Yu had put together in haste to stop Anubis had almost been destroyed and that the system lord himself had barely escaped. However, the fact that Yu had stood up to Anubis and survived had inspired droves of minor system lords to his cause. Even Morrigan and Bastet who had been ardently loyal to Anubis had defected and brought their fleets to Yu's cause. Ba'al, however, was still playing both sides.

She stepped to the side and out of view as he pressed a few buttons that had been hidden in an armrest on his throne to bring the incoming message up. She saw Yu's First Prime and Teal'c on screen as Ba'al stated, “What is the meaning of this?”

“Lord Ba'al,” Yu's First Prime began, but was cut off.

“Why do you allow this _sho'va_ to appear before me?” Ba'al demanded.

“I would like to present an offer,” Tea'lc said, quite unperturbed by the slur.

“I will not listen to the words of a traitor!”

Seemingly unfazed by the outburst, Teal'c continued, saying, “Then you will miss an opportunity to rid yourself of Anubis forever.”

_**Oh?**_ she heard her host murmur, interest piqued. Even she was curious and she saw that the Jaffa's words had also caught the interest of Ba'al, though his eyes narrowed a little more, suspicious of Teal'c words.

“The truth is,” Yu's First Prime spoke up, “my master is no longer fit to lead the combined forces of the system lords.

Anger swept over Ba'al's expression at such blasphemous words as he said, “How dare you judge your god? The sho'va has poisoned your mind!”

She saw Teal'c merely glance over at Yu's First Prime before saying in a casual tone, “It appears that Ba'al is not interested.”

Answering him was the equally casual tone from Yu's First Prime, saying, “We should contact one of the other system lords.”

“Perhaps Bastet,” Teal'c offered.

Leto could not help but indulge in a small bout of laughter with her host in their shared space as they saw Ba'al's expression change to that of interest. He clearly knew what they were offering, and now, this would be the best chance to take it and rid the entire galaxy of Anubis. At the end of the day, he, Ba'al, would be at the top, commanding the might of the system lords.

“If I assume command,” Ba'al began, “how can I assure the loyalty of Yu's troops?” The system lord was savvy enough to know that the rebel fleet was mostly made up of Yu's ships and that whatever ships Ba'al would be able to bring to the fight would not be enough to overpower Yu's ships.

“They will follow me in his name,” the First Prime stated with confidence.

“And will you obey me?”

“The destruction of Anubis is in my master's best interest. I will support any action that leads to this goal.”

It was an astute and as diplomatic answer as any that could be given, and she credited Yu's First Prime for being incredibly smart in his words. It was neither a confirmation or a swearing of loyalty and instead, only served to cement the only thing that tied all system lords together in this crisis. Ba'al, however, seemed to consider the First Prime's words for a few moments before finally giving a nod of his head.

“If you are both in agreement,” Teal'c spoke up, “I must contact the Tau'ri to make arrangements.”

“Then do so,” the system lord arrogantly said before disconnecting.

There was a look on the system lord's face that she remembered seeing whenever he was in deep thought and knew better than to disturb him. She remained where she was, knowing that both she and her host were quite interested in what exactly the Tau'ri had planned that involved the combined system lords. Her prediction two months ago about the Tau'ri was proving to be correct. It had to have been an ambitious plan and she expected no less from those people.

“Report, Leto,” Ba'al suddenly said in a commanding, almost harsh tone.

Keeping her expression placid, she stepped back to the spot she had vacated and said, “As I was saying before, milord, we have identified who was responsible for the destruction of the four ships on Carran. It is the same group of Tok'ra who had sabotaged your ore facilities on Perius, Hamiln, and Ataru. The group is being led by a Tok'ra named Malek of Ichterus.”

“Not one of my Jaffa guarding all of those facilities were able to catch this Malek?” Ba'al asked, as a stormy look passed over his features.

“Unfortunately no,” she said, injecting some fear into the tone of her voice, trying to ignore the satisfaction oozing from her host at the fact that Ba'al had lost a few key facilities. “However, reports from Carran have said that your Jaffa have at least killed one of the other Tok'ra with him, though the body was erased by zat'nik'tel before they could attempt to recover it.”

The system lord made a disgusted noise before saying, “The incompetence of my Jaffa know no bounds. Do you trust your helper, Leto?”

She blinked, caught off-guard with the question for a moment before carefully answering, “With my life, milord. After all, it was he who found me and put me into the sarcophagus after Tanith's assassin struck.”

“Good. See to it that your helper personally executes all of the Jaffa and their families who were in charge of security at all four planets. I will not have negligence in my ranks.”

“Yes...milord,” she said, bowing, unsure as to why Ba'al was delegating a task to Dian when it would have been normally delegated to her.

“You, Leto, will be coming with me and commanding one of the ships that we will be bringing to the alliance. You have fought against Anubis before, even though it was with the wretched Tok'ra. Though I can confidently predict Anubis' moves and plans, I will need your ship to be the eyes and ears monitoring for any activity with the Eye of Ra while I coordinate the attack.”

“It would be my pleasure, milord.”

 

**~*~*~*~**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 8**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

The sun was setting, casting its golden rays across the violet-hued skies, when Malek finally worked up the nerve to approach the chamber where Aldwin was recovering. Vala Mal Doran and Dr. Jackson had already left a few hours before, citing that they would return in a day to check up upon Ba'al's former host, Tanith's former host, and on Aldwin. Since the revelation that they, the Tok'ra, may have unknowingly killed one of their own, many had gone to where Aldwin was lying, hoping that perhaps he would awaken and they would have their answers.

Malek had initially hid himself away, not wanting to talk to anyone after the Tok'ra had dispersed from the main hall. It had been mainly to calm both his thoughts and the turmoil that roiled within him. His host had waited patiently, sending soothing thoughts and calm feelings towards him, assuaging his guilt – his obsession – that had driven him to hunt down Leto for all those years. The cunning lieutenant of Ba'al, whom he thought both he and his host had finally met their match for subterfuge warfare, had finally turned out to be someone whom he had thought lost forever to death.

The flood of memories from the time spent in the tension-filled atmosphere of an ongoing operation, and in brief moments of relaxation and peace, had washed over him, carrying sorrow and guilt. It had been then, hiding away in a seldom used room, that he realized that after two thousand years, he had long harbored a deep admiration and affection for Wadjet...Leto that had never been said or acted upon. Now, because of him, Leto was dead.

_**Shh,**_ the soothing whisper of his host said, his host's regretful feelings mixing in with his own. It had not been just him, the symbiote, who had been driven to bring the Goa'uld Leto to justice, it had also been his host. _**All is not lost, Malek. Leto still lives on in the memories of Aldwin. We shall protect him and the memories of your beloved as we should have long ago.**_

He stopped by the entrance to the chamber – it was empty save the fact that Anise was sitting by the bedside, as if on vigil. _**We are not the only ones with cherished memories of old. Anise and Freya also have memories of Leto,**_ he thought. _ **Neither Anise or I should have never let Aldwin and Leto go to Revanna, but we cannot change the past. You are right; we shall protect him now as we should have done.**_

“Anise?” he asked, stepping in and saw the beautiful woman turn from her vigil toward him. “Any changes?”

His fellow Tok'ra shook her head as he stopped by the end of the bed. “He still sleeps, but it looks like he is sleeping easier,” she answered. “Dr. Jackson may have said that he not under any severe withdrawal effects, but some of the others do not think otherwise, especially now that we know who he carried. It is still too early for the healers to attempt to diagnose if there are any adverse physical effects that he may have suffered while in captivity.”

“How about his...visitors?” he asked, gesturing slightly towards the hall.

“They come and go,” she curtly answered, pressing her lips together in slight anger for a moment. “And you Malek? How are you?”

_**Allow me,** Malek,_ his host said, and Malek gave way, grateful that he did not have to directly answer Anise or look into her expressive eyes that seemed to always bore into the soul of both symbiote and host.

“Malek will survive,” he heard his host say. “The stone road has been long and is still being built, but we now walk with eyes much clearer than they had been for a while. I hope that in time, Aldwin will forgive us for what we've done to both him and Leto.”

“It is curious,” Anise said after a moment with a quizzical expression gracing her face as she tilted her head slightly to look at them. “Twice now in this day, you have shown yourself. I do hope that you will forgive my rudeness, but I am curious as to who you are.”

“I'd like to know that too,” a croaky voice issued up from the bed.

Malek immediately took over as he felt his host withdraw with a smile that ran from virtual ear to ear, but did not move from where he was. Anise had squeaked in surprise before she immediately started fussing over Aldwin and poured him a glass of water. Malek watched as the waning sunlight splashed over the room, giving him a good look at the pale, gaunt face of his friend. However, he was slightly amused as he watched Aldwin try to extricate himself from Anise's fussing after drinking the glass of water.

“Anise,” Aldwin said after a few moments, “Please...stop. I'm fine.”

“Are you sure?” Anise asked. “The healers--”

“No,” Aldwin said, shaking his head slightly, but Malek saw that the movement affected him more than he showed as he saw Aldwin sway very slightly, before looking up at both him and Anise. “I...I just want some time alone, please? After...after what happened...”

“It is all right, Aldwin,” Anise gently said, “we know who Leto really is.”

“You-you do?” Aldwin asked, eyes widening slightly. “But...how?”

“Vala Mal Doran,” he spoke up, clasping his hands behind his back. “She was the final host to Qetesh before her capture, extraction, and execution.”

“Qetesh.”

That one name, one word, spoken like a combination of a curse or epithet filled with despair, hope, and sadness from Aldwin made Malek frown slightly. It was also then that he silently confirmed to himself that whatever Vala Mal Doran had said was indeed true about Leto. He opened his mouth to apologize, but Aldwin shook his head.

“Don't, Malek. Don't apologize for what you did...what you had to do. Leto and I both decided that this was the best course of action. She has lived for thousands of years, and with the capture of last of the system lords and the dawn of a new age of peace, she felt that it was no longer her place to stay.”

“Aldwin...” Freya whispered, and Malek could sense that Anise had hidden herself away, much like he had done earlier. Whether it was to think, to cry, to contemplate silently without disturbance, he didn't know, but hoped that Anise would be able to gather up the courage to return to the forefront as he had done. It saddened him to have his worst fears confirmed; that Leto deliberately cause all of those atrocities, and not only that, Aldwin had agreed to it. He desperately wanted to hate them, but found that he could not even bring himself to walk out of the room.

_**There has to be a reason,**_ his host insisted. _**We know Aldwin, and he doesn't do things like that deliberately without cause. He would have stopped her long ago...there has to be a reason...**_

Silence fell upon the three of them for a long time, with the footsteps of those outside of the living quarters punctuating it. It was a noisy sigh from Aldwin that completely broke the silence as he took another sip of water from the glass and said, “Leto and I agreed to this because peace cannot exist for us when the system lords were still alive. Though I know that I too must eventually face justice for my actions taken, I have one last mission that she entrusted me to undertake. She cannot be there to help me because it it not accessible to those who are current hosts to symbiotes. She entrusted me with the future of the Tok'ra. If you would have me, my friends, I may need your help in accomplishing it, since I am as weak as a newborn right now.”

“Won't you wait until you are stronger?” Freya asked. “Do you really need to accomplish this final wish of Leto right now?”

Aldwin was silent for a long moment, but Malek could see something change within his friend's eyes. “I am dying,” Aldwin softly stated.

Malek dropped his hands to his side and stared incredulously at his friend, unable to comprehend the thought behind the words. Even his host was at a loss. Surely it was a lie – Aldwin and Leto could not have been through the sarcophagus _that_ much to be completely dependent on it, could they? He expected those three words from Ba'al's former host, a thousand or more years old, but not from Aldwin.

“When the Tau'ri started to accelerate the chaos within the ranks of the system lords, a functional sarcophagus not tethered to their homeworld started became scarce and was horded as a resource,” Aldwin patiently explained. “The one that Ba'al had revived Leto and I in was the same one that Leto had modified for Qetesh; he apparently found it somewhere I know not. After we began serving him, we made further modifications to the sarcophagus – to try to build certain resistances within our minds to the moral corruption of the sarcophagus. Unfortunately, the side effect was that my body became entirely dependent on the sarcophagus and Leto's attempts to purge me of that physical addiction failed. So please, my friends... I want to fulfill Leto's last wish before I die.”

“What is this wish?” he asked, taking a step forward. If at all possible, he wanted his friend to stay here and recover, not to go run around the galaxy in terrible physical condition. Though he was still conflicted with the truth about Leto and of Aldwin's apparent complicity in what Leto had done for over five years, the words that Vala Mal Doran had spat out at them still echoed within both he and his host. Any one of them, Tok'ra included, could be called a murderer – the actions they had taken throughout two thousand years of fighting were by all rights, unforgivable.

However, he saw that his question had had an adverse effect on his friend. Aldwin's expression became unreadable as his eyes moved slightly towards where the entrance to the room was. “No matter what either of you may say, the Council will not forgive my actions. I would rather not say what Leto's last wish is, because it could all turn out to be a fool's errand.”

“What would you have us do?” Freya asked, turning Aldwin's attention from the entrance back towards her.

“Please, get me out of here without anyone noticing.”

~◊~

_~9.9 years after the death of Ra..._

 

“Milord,” she heard the Jaffa state with a tremor in his voice from his position at the forefront of the ship's consoles. “Should we not assist Lord Ba'al?”

“I will not say it again,” she said, affecting as best of an unconcerned tone as possible as she steepled her host's fingers together. The screen before all of those on the bridge showed that the massive fleet that Ba'al had taken with him to initially stop the rebel Jaffa from claiming Dakara's superweapon being slaughtered piece by piece by the Replicators.

It had been through a transmission to her by Ba'al that she was now here, hiding on the darkside of the planet's moon. Anubis had wanted Ba'al to stop the rebels and he had complied, but had taken a very long time to actually arrive. She had sat in the only ship she commanded, watching as the rebels swarmed the superweapon. Ba'al had arrived with his fleet, but as soon as she expected him to rain fire down upon those on the planet's surface, he actually stopped his fleet and had opened a channel to those on the surface.

Though the transmission was projected to those on Dakara, it had also been encrypted and sent to her to view and monitor. Both she and Aldwin had leapt with joy in their shared space as they realized that Selmak and Jacob were down there. It was also then that they had informed Ba'al that they had a plan to modify the superweapon to get rid of the Replicator scouge. However, as she had found out from viewing the communication, the rebels down below did not posses the necessary equipment or capability to activate all known chappa'ai at once. Confidently, Ba'al had claimed that he could modify a program to do such a thing.

Though a communication channel had not been activated, she knew that Ba'al expected her input into solving the simultaneous chappa'ai activation and thus gave it to him. One of her Jaffa had left in a cloaked teltac and brought the crystal containing her inputs to Ba'al. Now though, it was up to the Tau'ri, Samantha Carter, Jacob, and the rebels down below to finish programming the superweapon. Ba'al's fleet was being slaughtered above the planet, but still she did not move.

Her lord had not called her in yet, and with steely resolve, she remained where she was. There were no doubts coming from her host, and together, they were united in their cause. _If_ and only if Ba'al and those below the planet fell to the Replicators, then would she move in – not to take over, but to unleash a prototype weapon she had specifically installed on this vessel.

With her host's help, she had tried to develop it in secret for the past few months, even keeping most of the schematics from Dian, but ultimately, it had to be revealed to Ba'al, for he had been most suspicious of what she was doing with his resources. In this particular battle, her lord had not called for aid, and she was merely here to watch and wait. There was always the chance that if the strange truce between Ba'al and the rebels below resulted in victory for both sides and the defeat of the Replicators, Anubis would show up. She needed to be prepared for that eventuality too.

“Milord!” the Jaffa suddenly exclaimed as they received footage from a floating drone that showed a portion of the planet's surface starting to glow. “The weapon...it has activated!”

She kept herself still, feeling Aldwin's keen interest spike, as the light unfolded and suddenly shot out a short distance, most likely disappearing into a chappa'ai. A faint wave seemed to suddenly burst forth from the surface, with its epicenter at the superweapon. It flashed across the planet's surface much like an ocean wave before rippiling out into space. Ships being controlled by Replicators suddenly fell silent and more than a few exploded as their core overloaded without the assistance of the Replicators maintaining it.

Within minutes, the dazzling light show was gone and all that was left before their screens was so much space debris from the battle. However, Ba'al's mothership was still functioning, but from this distance, she could see that it was barely holding together. The rebels' ship was also quite battered, even after having used most of Ba'al's fleet as a shield. She could see the rebels' weapons attempting to power up, ready for the kill.

“Milord, we should go--”

The Jaffa never completed his words as a moment later, Ba'al beamed in with a flash of light. Asgard technology, stolen from Thor's mind by Anubis had its uses, and certainly helped when one had to get in and out quite quickly. Anubis had only given it to the system lords he had somewhat trusted: Ba'al and Osiris. Leto had never gotten a chance to look at how it worked, but now was not the time, for Ba'al merely spun from where he had landed with a smug grin on his face.

She could feel Aldwin's hackles rise and his urging to kill the system lord now and to end this once and for all, but she sent calm and caution to him. They could kill Ba'al while he was overconfident in his escape, but they would not survive those loyal to Ba'al on this ship, especially the two Kull soldiers that Anubis had installed on every ship that served in the greater part of his fleets. Aldwin had fired back at her thoughts, saying that he did not care whether or not they lived or died, but she held firm – they could not kill Ba'al yet, not while Anubis was still a greater threat out there.

Anger seethed from her host, but she merely stared at the system lord, knowing that she should offer her seat to him, but she didn't feel like it...at least not yet. She saw his smile falter slightly as offense started to replace it, but before either of them could say a word about the breach in servitude etiquette, there was a tone for an incoming encrypted message.

Dian's face resolved on the screen as he said, “Leto, we just received word that all weapons manufacturing facilities on Danaris were destroyed.”

“What?!” Ba'al exclaimed, taking a few steps forward, eyes blazing in anger.

“Milord Ba'al,” Dian said, stuttering slightly as he realized who else was on the bridge of the ship. While she knew that her fellow Tok'ra knew that transmissions such as these were not safe to openly talk about their plans, there were keywords that each of them spoke during these messages to convey secondary ones. “I had not realized that you were present.”

“Speak,” Ba'al ordered.

“As I have said, Danaris' weapons facilities were destroyed. We know not how they were, but we do know who was responsible.”

“Who?”

“Malek of Ichterus and others that he commands,” Dian said. “Reports indicate that they are still on the planet but are headed towards the chappa'ai. In your absence, Leto, and Lord Ba'al, I have already relayed a message and dispatched troops to stop them.”

“Set course for Danaris,” the system lord ordered as Leto finally vacated the throne and stepped to the side.

She had to give credit that Dian had not even flinched or given away any indication that he had secretly helped Malek and his team with the destruction of the weapons facilities. Dian was not even on Danaris, having stayed behind on their own planet, continuing to 'create' prototypes. Though Dian had not directly interfaced with Malek, she knew that he sent small bursts of encrypted data in random caches that were transmitted using various old Tok'ra scrambled long-ranged frequencies. She was well aware that many of the data ended up being intercepted by undercover operatives stationed on various planets under Ba'al's control, and made sure that Ba'al was none the wiser.

In just about the two years that had passed between Ba'al taking over leadership of the combined system lords and then reverting back to being Anubis' servant once it had been discovered that Anubis had survived the destruction of his ship that had contained the Eye of Ra, there had been massive upheavals. First was the fact that Anubis had created nearly indestructible Kull soldiers, until SG-1 managed to manufacture a weapon that could fell the soldiers. Then came the news that the Tau'ri homeworld housed a powerful Ancient device and obliterated the resurgent Anubis' and his fleet that he had brought to bear upon the Tau'ri.

That had been nearly a year ago, and they had all thought that Anubis had finally been defeated. Ba'al had leapt at the opportunity and had raided Anubis' Kull soldier creation facility, practically making himself invincible. That was, until Anubis reared his ugly head again. However, before that had happened, with his armies now augmented, Ba'al had sent Leto, Dian, along with Nerus and other vassals working under him to conquer the rest of the system lords. Both she and Dian had taken that opportunity to assassinate as many system lords as possible, forcing the Jaffa loyal to their former masters to capitulate and serve Ba'al. Unfortunately, Yu was the only major system lord among the few minor ones that included Tanith, whom had not been subjugated to Ba'al's rule. Both Yu and Tanith had fled to parts unknown and even now, she wasn't sure where they were or if they were still alive after the Replicators had briefly taken over nearly half of the galaxy.

Camulus had initially also managed to flee Ba'al's expansion by asking for asylum with the Tau'ri, but the disgraced system lord was now quite dead. She was well aware that what they had done to the system lords in the past year had greatly expanded Ba'al's forces, but it also enable him to become a very large target. Dian had argued against killing all of the system lords they had encountered, stating that it was better to have them plotting against Ba'al. She had stated that with the Asgard Treaty still in place, it was better to have one single threat that the Tau'ri could concentrate on than having multiple ones.

Unfortunately, it had also made all loyal vassals under Ba'al a target for subversive warfare via the Tok'ra and other resistant forces. With each world they had acquired into the fold, they also acquired Tok'ra operatives who had been embedded into the fallen system lords' domains. Navigating around that minefield had been incredibly tricky for neither she or Dian wanted their hosts' identities to be revealed to the Tok'ra. If their hosts' identities were compromised by the Tok'ra then they could no longer operate with impunity against Ba'al or safely deliver key intelligence without the Tok'ra knowing any wiser.

Foremost of the Tok'ra who knew of their reputation as Goa'uld and not as their previous selves or their hosts, though Dian's Goa'uld identity was still safely anonymous, was Malek and the tiny cell he led. In the past three, nearly four years since she had begun this operation, she had seen the steadily growing reputation of her dear friend, as both a capable leader and dangerous operative, whispered with some fear within Goa'uld circles. She had deliberately kept him and his team focused on her, Dian, and many other minor system lords, trying to prevent him from taking too rash of actions and going up directly against Ba'al.

Malek had been instrumental in carrying out the destruction of valuable resources that the Goa'uld needed to maintain their power. She knew that both Dian and her were clearly manipulating their allies to do a lot of their dirty work, but it was necessary. There was only so much she or her fellow Tok'ra could do in their positions, and until _all_ of the system lords were defeated, they had to stay where they were.

Her dear friend may have become a thorn at Ba'al's side, but she became the wall that separated the two from direct confrontation. The destruction of the manufacturing facilities at Danaris would be the closest that not only her, but also Ba'al would get to encountering Malek, and she desperately hoped that Dian would be up to the task she was about to covertly assign him for Malek's sake.

“If I may, milord,” she spoke up, clasping her hands together. “Danaris is a planet under my control and care. Since we will not be testing this new weapon on the rebels, shall we test this on the inhabitants of Danaris?”

“We shall test this weapon on the rebels and Tau'ri below,” Ba'al angrily said. “Then we shall use the weapon on Danaris for their insolence in allowing the facilities to be destroyed!”

“Lord Ba'al,” she said, stepping up and putting an edge in the tone of her host's voice. Jaffa all around her were twitching slightly, unsure if they should activate their weapons. “This is merely a prototype. If it does work the first time, there is no guarantee that it will work the second time. I highly suggest choosing only one target. Those at Dakara or those at Danaris?”

She could feel the immense hatred being bored into her from Ba'al's glare before he sat down on the throne and said, “Set course for Danaris. We shall arrive in five hours. You, Leto's helper, will relay a message to all of the Jaffa down on the planet. Do not let them escape or I will personally see to it that their families and families of their families will suffer the consequences.”

The transmission ended and she gave a small mental sigh, feeling her host retreat slightly, deciding not to further argue a course for the attempted assassination of Ba'al. Dian would only have five hours to warn Malek and other Tok'ra operatives on the planet to get clear, if he hadn't already done so. She didn't know if Dian actually had sent troops to hunt down their now-infamous friend, but she hoped it was not so.

~◊~

“I don't like this,” he heard Gant mutter as the four of them crouched behind the boulders that were positioned near the ravine where the chappa'ai was located. Though there were no sign of life in the ravine, it was the cliffs that surrounded the place that had all of them worried.

Getting into the planet had not been the hard part, for they had stolen a fully functional teltac and landed without incident before carrying out their mission. Explosives had been successfully laced around all facilities, but it had been at the final facility, near the teltac that they had been discovered by Jaffa. With their position inside of the industrial facility compromised and the teltac out of their reach, they had tried to head towards the chappa'ai. Their run through the thick, thorny forests of the planet had managed to buy them time to lose the pursuing Jaffa, but now, with the beginning of the ravine ahead of them and sheer cliff sides that would provide an ideal cover for any ambush, it seemed like a dead end.

“Hold,” Xau said, as Malek looked back and saw her looking warily around. A moment later, there was a snap of twigs on the ground as they saw a woman step out from the shadows of a cluster of trees. Four zat'nik'tels were immediately activated and pointed at the Jaffa, but strangely enough, no other Jaffa stepped out and she had not leveled her weapon against them.

“Hold your fire, Malek of Ichterus,” the Jaffa stated. “I do not seek to capture or kill you or your team.”

“Who are you?” he demanded, keeping his hand steady and trained on the Jaffa as he looked around, searching for signs of an ambush.

“We may not have directly met, but both you and I briefly served at the Tau'ri Alpha Site, fighting against the Ashrak,” the Jaffa answered. “I am Sarish, formerly of service to the false goddess, Bastet. I defected when she had my mate killed several years ago. I volunteered to be inserted into this planet to help spread the free Jaffa cause a few months ago after Leto conquered it.”

“Malek, there is something odd about her,” Risune whispered. “I do not sense the presence of a primm'ta within her.”

“Are you on tretonin?” he asked. It was a symbol of the free Jaffa that defined their cause – to refuse to continue being incubators for immature symbiotes – and the tretonin, first manufactured by the Tok'ra and then mass-produced by the Tau'ri for the rebel Jaffa, was their proof.

“Yes,” Sarish answered.

Malek's trust in rebel Jaffa and their cause was tenuous at best, and he knew that what he was about to say was a bit crass, but he would not put the lives of his team into the hands of a self-proclaimed rebel Jaffa until he was sure. “Prove it. Show me that you are not dependent on a symbiote.”

Even with the distance separating his team from the Jaffa woman, he could see that she was incensed at what he had subtly implied, but tretonin or no, he also didn't fully trust Tau'ri security. Someone could have stolen the formula, given it to Ba'al, or Ba'al may have used techniques like Anubis to acquire data. It was paranoia, and even his host had admonished him for his extreme line of thought; Ba'al or Leto may have forced Jaffa to take tretonin to infiltrate the rebel Jaffa cause. Bra'tac had been right when he said that the Jaffa had more honor than Tok'ra – it was how they, the Tok'ra, thought that had kept their race alive for all this time.

There was the echoing snap of something metal being unbuckled and moments later, the torso armor that covered the Jaffa was removed. The pouch where a symbiote would have been nesting was quite healed over and barely a scar showing. It was proof and at his host's urging he gave in to extending a sliver of trust towards the Jaffa. Deactivating his weapon, there was series of clicks that followed his own as the Jaffa re-attached her armor.

Cautiously, the four of them made their way to where Sarish was, careful to continue to keep their profiles low until the woods completely swallowed them. He could feel the heat of the Jaffa's glare at him for having humiliated her and questioned her honor, but he ignored it and settled for merely leveling a no-nonsense gaze at her. Sarish towered over him and his team, but he was not easily intimidated. “Can you get us through the ravine and to the chappa'ai?” he bluntly asked.

“I can do better than that, Malek of Ichterus,” she replied in an equally curt fashion. “I have diverted the Jaffa searching for you and cleared them from your teltac. I was given reliable information from a contact that the Dakara superweapon was fired and eliminated the Replicators, but that Ba'al escaped destruction. He is apparently on board Leto's ship and they are headed towards this planet. They will arrive in less than three hours.”

“So?” Gant said, giving the Jaffa a skeptical look. “They come in, we get into our scout ship, cloak ourselves and go infiltrate their ship. We then go assassinate those sons of bitches. Kill them like we killed Amaterasu, Brigid, Nephthys, Shiva, and Romulus.”

“I would not recommend that,” Sarish stated, giving a dismissive glance towards Gant and her cavalier attitude. “My source tells me that Leto's ship is heavily modified and can prevent anyone except for those with the correct codes for transport rings or possessing Asgard beaming technology from getting in and out. My source does not have the codes. There is also a rumored prototype weapon akin to Anubis' Eye of Ra on board the ship. Leto intends to test it on the planet if the four of you are not captured.”

“Then we surrender,” he said after a moment of silence. “We will not have the blood of so many innocents, Jaffa not withstanding, on our hands.”

The main area near the chappa'ai was swarming with Goa'uld forces, but the rest of the planet was dotted with inhabitants clustered around small settlements who had nothing to do with the war. It had been quite surprising to Malek and his team when they had first received intel on the planet that the local population had not been subjugated to the whims and iron-fisted rule of the Goa'uld, Leto. While strange, the weapons facilities were still large and widespread enough to be a primary threat, and thus they had undertaken this operation to destroy them.

Sarish merely raised an eyebrow, her expression remaining stoic as she said, “On the contrary, my contact has explicitly stated that you and your team are to be removed from the planet with all haste. Apparently, preserving you and your team is higher in priority than preserving the lives of those living on this planet.”

“But what about the people living here?” Gant asked, greatly concerned. “Do you have any allies among the Jaffa who can start evacuating them via the stargate?”

“Stargate?” the Jaffa asked, blinking in puzzlement. “You are not Tok'ra?”

“I am Tau'ri,” Gant proudly stated.

However, before Gant could say anymore, Malek placed a hand on her arm, silencing her as he said, “The information you have told us could not have been said without close proximity or clear, unhindered listening of private communications. Your source...your contact... is a Tok'ra deep within Ba'al's forces, correct?”

Silence answered him before Sarish gave a curt nod. “Come,” was all she said.

He followed her without protest, realizing that they had either blown or almost blew a fellow operative's cover. The operative must have been incredibly close or within Ba'al's inner circle to have heard the discussion, and risked getting the information out. He didn't understand why the operative thought that getting the team off planet was higher than trying to prevent Leto from testing his new weapon, but he wasn't about to let it go to waste.

“I have only a few allies on this planet and they have already started trying to relocate the inhabitants living nearest to the chappa'ai,” Sarish quietly said as they quickly made their way through the thick, sharp-leafed forests again, headed towards the teltac. “We do not know how this weapon will work, but if Abydos was any indication of the power of the Eye of Ra and Leto has indeed created something similar, hopefully the destruction rendered will only be limited to this part of the planet.”

“What about you?” Gant asked. “Are you going to leave via the stargate before they arrive?”

“No, young one,” the Jaffa answered. “I am staying. Ba'al and Leto will know that though they proclaim themselves as false gods, free Jaffa will be everywhere they turn.”

~◊~

_**If looks could kill, I think Ba'al has already bore two holes through our chest, Leto,**_ she heard her host say as her fingers carefully manipulated tiny portions of the various settings on the weapon that was attached to the ship. Though all of her manipulations were being displayed on the screen for all to see, it was gibberish as far as any one else, including Ba'al, was concerned. She had hidden various subroutines and programs within the interface, accessible only with certain combinations of main settings that would tweak the weapon.

Ba'al irritated gaze, not only on her, but also on the wash of hyperspace had they had been flying through for the past five hours. It was only when the Jaffa piloting the ship finally dropped them out of hyperspace did she heard the system lord finally shift and move to sit up from his slouch.

“Powering weapon,” she stated from the side, standing in front of her console.

Ba'al activated a communication channel and moments later, a female Jaffa appeared on screen. “Where are the Tok'ra prisoners?” Ba'al demanded.

“Gone,” the Jaffa said, before declaring, “and they will never fall into your hands, false god Ba'al. Know this: free Jaffa are everywhere and though you may punish us, we will grow in numbers more than you cannot possibly imagine. We live free, we die free!”

Leto caught Ba'al's furious look and even before his enraged yell roared over the communication, she simply stated, “Targeting the chappa'ai. Firing weapon.”

There was a rather loud whine that built up just before the weapon fired, shooting a sickly-looking purple beam from the ship and into the planet. The communication between the rebel Jaffa and Ba'al fizzled out to static. Leto could feel the ship rumbling under the strain as her monitors filled up with status displays and data coming in from the test firing. With her host's resolve filling her, she kept her hands steady on the console before discreetly applying a small amount of pressure on a certain part of the console. Moments later, there was a rather violent buckle that seared through the ship, throwing many of them to the floor. It was followed by another violent tremor that sent even her to the floor.

“Lord Ba'al, sublight and hyperdrive engines have been damaged and are down!” one of the Jaffa who had recovered faster said as diagnostics were pulled up. “Shields are still intact at fifty percent, but several lower levels near where the weapons have sustained structural damage and are venting.”

She managed to lift herself back up to her console, sending an apology towards her host for injuring them in the attempt to sabotage their own work. Pulling up the displays on the weapon console, she stated, “The weapon has been destroyed by the overload.”

“Repair the engines now,” Ba'al commanded. “What is the status of the inhabitants below?”

“Milord--” another Jaffa began but was cut off by the Jaffa at the main console. “Enemy ship sighted on screen! A previously cloaked teltac in high orbit beyond us!”

_Malek, you idiot!_

Her frustration, mixing in with nearly the same feelings coming from her host surged through. Rather than just leave without undue harm, she raged at the stupidity that had gripped their friend in staying to watch the destruction of Danaris. The damage to the weapon that had been integrated into her ship must have discharged electrical currents into space over a wide field, dragging the cloak down from the teltac.

However, even with engines down, the mothership still had shields and possibly some functional weapons batteries. She would be forced to open fire at him. Ba'al was well aware from long ago that she was a good shot with weapons, be it from a mothership as large as this one to an al-kesh bomber. He would expect her to not miss hitting a target like a cargo ship.

“We still have some functional weapons, milord,” she said, making sure to keep the reluctance she felt from being heard. She brought up her screen to display how much power and what bombardment batteries were available.

“Destroy that ship, Leto,” Ba'al commanded.

“As you wish, milord,” she stated and prayed with all of her might that Malek would be able to out fly the assault she was about to unleash.

~◊~

The acrid smell of burnt crystals and smoke filled not only the hold but also the cockpit of the cargo ship. The ship itself was not structurally damaged, but the destructive discharge from the weapon that had sent its deadly beam down into the planet had damaged the cloaking device and had temporarily fried their engines. Power from life support and other system still hummed, but it was only when he felt a surge and rumble beneath the pilot's seat did he know that at least engines had been repaired.

Jamming the piloting interface forward, the little cargo ship wildly bucked before zooming forward, just as a hail of golden energy blasts peppered the area where it had been. The mothership's batteries tracked the cargo ship wherever it went, and it took all of Malek's concentration and then some to stay ahead of the destructive energy.

“I need hyperdrive!” he yelled towards the back, hearing the startled yells of his teammates trying to fix the rest of the ship as they tried to steady themselves with the wild maneuvers he was putting into the poor little cargo ship.

Though not as maneuverable as a glider, he threw the cargo ship into a corkscrew spin before leveling out, banked a hard left and sent the ship into a tight loop to avoid being hit. The console beeped at him, and he spared it a moment's glance to see that four more blips had shown up – the ship had sent out gliders to add to the pursuit.

The first hit from either the mothership or the gliders shuddered throughout the structure of the ship, and there was another beep from the console – shields down fifty percent. He continued to fly, twisting, banking, and rolling this way and that; adding as much speed as he could squeeze out of the cargo ship to try to fly out of the range of the batteries while dodging the hail of fire.

The second hit not only lit up the console but started a persistent beep. Shields were completely gone and now the cargo ship was at the mercy of the gliders and the mothership's relentless batteries. Adding to the pressure to keep them alive was the fact that smoke was starting to rise up from the piloting console. Still he flew, determined to stay alive. Ba'al was already in the sights of the Tau'ri and free Jaffa. It was Ba'al's lieutenant, the weapons-smith that he wanted to kill. Leto was going to pay for what he had done to the inhabitants of Danaris.

“Hyperdrive online!”

Malek immediately smacked the button on the console as the brief, overwhelming force of the ship leaping into hyperspace overrode the inertial compensators. As sudden as it was felt, it was gone as they disappeared into the depths and safety of hyperspace. His host's relief flooded his senses and he didn't stop it, feeling the same. It had been very close. Smoke was still rising from the console, but it was not his primary concern as he heard his teammates start shouting at each other.

He stayed where he was, for the displays indicated that autopilot of the cargo ship through hyperspace could not be engaged, due to extensive damage. He could hear Gant yelling at both Xau and Risune, telling them to shut up and stop blaming one another. He knew that he should stop their arguments, but there were times where even Tok'ra disagreed and to stop the disagreements from being bottled up and generating resentment, one had to allow the argument to play out.

Xau had been the one to suggest they stay in a cloaked high orbit around the planet to gather information about the new weapon. Risune wanted to escape, but he did see the merit in staying to gather as much information as possible. Gant wanted to go back down and help the inhabitants escape and relocate, but Malek had refused to allow anyone else on the cargo ship. It was already risky enough that they had agreed to stay to observe the weapon, he did not want to add any innocent lives on board the ship or to their changed mission parameters.

The only good thing to have come out of the reconnaissance was the fact that it seemed like the weapon had overloaded and destroyed itself from within. It was a prototype and considering that they had not heard a hair or hide about the weapon until now, it was unlikely that Leto or Ba'al would be able to rebuild it for a while. With what little they knew of what had happened at Dakara, he could only assume that Ba'al's fleet had also been somewhat destroyed – resources would be poured into rebuilding his fleet, not towards the creation of new and exotic weapons.

Staring at the fluid view of hyperspace before him, he let his mind wander as his host settled down to just listen to the less-vehement voices of their team arguing. Knowing that whoever the Tok'ra was, who was in deep cover within Ba'al's forces, he wondered if they would ever get a chance to collect information that would eventually give them the opportunity to assassinate Leto.

 

~*~*~*~


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 9**

_11.8 years after the death of Ra..._

 

The quiet murmurs of the villagers in this particular area were merely a hum as he walked through the dusty and crowded dirt roads. It was market day for the inhabitants of this community, but despite his confident stride as he made his way to a particular hut, people did not pay him much heed. A few waved in greeting, and he merely nodded back, but did not further engage them.

It was here, on this backwater planet that was barely beyond what Malek thought that either Anise or Dr. Jackson would classify as Tau'ri medieval times, that he and his team had made their new base. Usually, they chose abandoned planets or barely inhabited ones, but for this particular mission, it was crucial that they be here. This planet was home to Leto and they had been living among the various villages and hamlets that surrounded Leto's stronghold since the beginning of the year.

They had kept their presence low-key, befriending the locals and had also slowly collected information. Though Jaffa patrolled through the villages, the times varied so much that they could not pin down a routine thus far. While the Jaffa were only patrolling in groups of four around the villages and in the thick woods that covered almost all of the land in this continent, each Jaffa had been armed with a personal shield that was similar to what a kara kesh could generate. That had made it impossible for Malek and his team to successfully ambush a patrol group so far.

Thus it was why the team settled in for the long wait and the integration into the settlements to find a route into Leto's stronghold. At first, the villagers from each settlement seemed quite terrified of them and refused to help them, but there were a few bold ones. The ones who wanted to throw the yolk of Goa'uld rule off of the planet helped them and hid them. There were traitors who tried to out them, to stave off punishment, but Malek and his team were never caught, thanks to the incredibly dense vegetation that littered the lower part of the forest that aided their escapes.

Punishment did come to those villagers who had helped them, but it was not as extreme as he had seen other Goa'uld system lords dole out. Judging from what he had seen, it seemed that Leto needed the villagers as his primary workforce. The cunning system lord took villagers into his stronghold in small groups at a time for a few days before releasing them with virtually no memory of what they had been doing in the stronghold. There were still physical signs though, on the released villagers, and it was mostly unhealed lacerations, stone dust, and various indicators that pointed to hard labor. Whatever Leto was doing in that stronghold, it involved either mining, experimentation, or perhaps a combination of both.

Shaking his head slightly, he opened the door to the small hut and stepped in, shutting it quickly so that the cold draft of a chilly winter on this planet would not seep in too much. Leto's stronghold was as impenetrable as the shielding on his Jaffa. In addition to a forcefield that was carved out of sections that would only collapse in certain areas to let Jaffa patrols through, he was sure that there were other defenses--

“It's so good to finally have a nice warm bath!”

Both Malek and his host's thoughts screeched to a halt as he looked up from pulling out small pieces of parchment notes that had been hidden in parchment-bound books from the village. He half-turned and saw that across the hut, in the corner, was Gant, except she was sitting in a rather large, narrow bowl-shaped tin bathtub. Though she was sitting in hot, steaming water, with only her bare shoulders and head showing, it was not the sight of his teammate taking a probably well-deserved bath that caused him to pale; it was the fact that neither he nor his host had even noticed her when they had entered. If Gant had not been there, it could have well been a Jaffa hiding in plain sight and he and his host would be dead by now.

“Nice to see you too, Malek,” Gant said, lazily leaning back a bit with an impish grin on her face.

Though he was still horrified at the lack of situational awareness that had been displayed, he turned so that his back was completely towards Gant. Privacy among the Tok'ra was respected and given for the most part for daily life situations, but between mates, privacy did not exist for them. Both symbiotes and hosts thought long and hard about choosing a mate before commitment, since it was virtually for life. Jolinar and Lantash were the best example of an enduring pair of symbiotes who had been committed to each other for well over two centuries before Rosha and Martouf had blended with them. He or his host, and Gant were certainly not mates, and thus she was afforded the privacy normally given.

“I will take my leave,” he muttered, quickly putting the notes back into the appropriate books, stacked the books, and walked away.

“Malek, stay,” Gant's commanding voice said, stopping him before he could reach the door. “It's all right. If I didn't want you here, I'd have already screamed bloody murder.”

He could feel his host shift uncomfortably in their shared space. Though he himself was perfectly fine with the situation, since Gant did not know of Tok'ra customs, it was out of consideration for his host, that he still did not turn from where he was. From his host's memories, he knew that his host had never been in a relationship with anyone, due to his keen interest in academic and professional studies, and considered peoples' privacy tantamount to being maintained. Memories from his host about his host's parents definitely augmented his host's declaration for privacy, for his host's parents had been government spies who had been ultimately betrayed by their own country's government. It was also because of his host's lack of experience that since they had been blended, he had not undertaken any of the normal missions he had done for so long that involved seducing a target to get information – he did not want to traumatize his host after all that his host had been though. It was also a way that he, Malek, honored Lysana's memory, for he had also not undertaken those types of missions when they had been blended.

“You do not understand,” he said, clasping his hands behind his back as he stood facing the door. Gant did not need to know about his host, and so in a blunt tone, he said, “It is not Tok'ra custom to watch someone bathe unless they are mates. Therefore, I shall take my leave.”

“Well, I like you, and I want you to stay,” he heard Gant say as the sounds of water splashing over the tub, onto the floor, and back into the tub was heard. Two faint wet plops of feet onto the wooden floor were heard, but he did not reach out to open the door as he heard Gant approach. It was too cold out and with the situation at hand, he was not cruel enough to expose an undressed teammate to the villagers or to freeze her while she was still wet. Instead, he kept himself still, closing his eyes for a moment as he felt his host slowly recover from the revelation.

His host may have been oblivious to all the affectionate signs that Gant had been displaying towards them for the past years they had been working with her, with it starting since the second mission together, but he had not been. He had done nothing to encourage or discourage her, hoping that eventually she would come to realize that he had no interest in her, other than she was a very intelligent and competent person who augmented his team. Gant was by no means an ugly-looking woman and was quite beautiful. Had the situation not been dire or all together different, he would have found her at least intellectually interesting. However, part of his lack of interest stemmed from the fact that he needed to protect his host at all cost, especially when it came to the Tau'ri. The other part came from the fact that he was the leader of this cell and to put more care into a particular teammate would compromise his judgment.

“I'm dressed, you know,” she said as he heard the creak of a table echo in the hut.

Deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt, he turned and saw that indeed, she was dressed, but had only wrapped her large drying cloth around her body, covering her somewhat modestly. Her hair was still dripping wet, but she seemed not to mind as she leaned against the table with a serious look on her face. He supposed it would do for now until she decided to change into her clothes.

“I am not interested and neither is my host,” he stated. The time to just let bygones be bygones was over – he needed to let Gant know that what she felt for either him or his host was not appropriate.

“Not your type then?” she said, as a strained smile appeared on her face. Before he could give her an answer, she said, “I should have known that you were with Anise and Freya.”

“No,” he shook his head, half-wondering why he was even engaging in this sort of conversation with her. “Anise is like a sister to me. Freya... is sometimes a handful who even tries my patience. Both of them have their own interests with certain Tau'ri people.”

“Ha!” Gant exclaimed, laughing as all signs of her disappointment in his rejection of her disappeared. “I knew it!”

He couldn't help but smile slightly as he felt his host cheer up with the laughter, but the smile died as he knew that he needed Gant to partially understand why he rejected her. “Gant, it is also detrimental to the chain of command should you and I even be in a relationship,” he quietly said.

“Yeah,” the woman replied with a nonchalant look on her face, though he could see that she was still hurt. “I figured that it was that. It was worth a shot though. Freya told me that you were kind of like a suave operative who always seduced targets to get information ... kind of like the James Bond of the Tok'ra. You just piqued my interest.”

“James Bond?” he questioned as his host shrugged in their shared space, not too sure who this 'James Bond' person was.

“Eh, Earth thing,” Gant said, shrugging. “He's a fictional character who was a secret agent and womanizer. He also happened to bed a lot of women and used them to get closer to his targets and stop bad things from happening. Bit of an asshole really... gave us real intelligence agents a false reputation in the public's eyes.”

He blinked, unsure whether or not he should be insulted at what Gant had just said, and eventually settled for giving her a neutral look.

“Agh, I didn't mean to use Jamesy-boy to describe you,” she suddenly said, shaking her head. “From what Freya told me, you're nothing like that fictional guy. Sorry. Please, it's not meant to be an affront on your character.”

She was saved from further embarrassment and babbling as a three-toned beep sounded from the Tollan communicator lying on another table. Malek walked over and picked it up, clicking it three times before hearing the coded clicks back. A voice issued from the communicator before he could get a word in, saying, “Operatives incoming to your position via teltac.”

“Send them to land near the chappa'ai,” he answered. There was a very peculiar thing about Leto's planet and it was that the chappa'ai was quite far away from his stronghold. All Goa'uld that they had been fighting against for these past two thousand years built their empires and main holdings as close to the chappa'ai as possible. Control the chappa'ai and they controlled the denizens of the planet.

There had not even been a stationary patrol at the chappa'ai when Malek and his team first arrived. All of them had first thought that this was an abandoned planet until they encountered the first of many villages that were halfway across the distance between Leto's stronghold and the chappa'ai. In a way, he had to admire the thought behind not building anything near the chappa'ai – it created a false sense of atmosphere around the place, giving an unsuspected traveler to the planet some false security that the planet was not worth staying upon... until they fell into the clutches of the outermost Jaffa patrol groups on the edge of the villages.

“Copy,” the tinny voice replied and signed off from the communicator.

Putting the device back down, he gave a nod towards Gant, saying, “If Risune or Xau return, let them know that we are expecting company. If you do not hear from me by the end of the day, move to the next location.”

“Will do.”

~◊~

Malek's fears about potential compromises to not only the Tollan communicator network, but also to operatives being sent to this planet were unfounded as he and the two that had arrived on the cargo ship made their way back to the village well before nightfall. While his fears had not been centered on the system lords, for they were virtually wiped out except for four of them, Ba'al, Leto, Tanith, and a still-unknown Goa'uld working for Leto, it was the Ori that worried him more.

There was a rather large swath of planets between where Leto, and the unknown Goa'uld who assisted him, was, that had been converted to worship the Ori. Ba'al had been completely cut off from his lieutenant since the Ori started spreading, and last Malek had heard, Ba'al had been causing some grief to the Tau'ri and free Jaffa with his clones. Tanith was likewise, also separated from causing any significant damage to anyone in the galaxy with the Ori rampaging through where his last confirmed location was, over a year ago.

The fact that two operatives managed to make it past the Ori blockade without harm or discovery was in itself a miracle. Perhaps the combined might of the Tau'ri and free Jaffa, with possible Asgard help were finally making a dent in the Ori incursion. If the main Tok'ra contingent was also helping them, even though they numbered so few, then there was always hope. His lips twitched up in a slight smile as he watched Garshaw and Anise, the two operatives who arrived by cargo ship, embrace Xau and Risune.

He had been greatly surprised to see both of them descend from the cargo ship when he had gone near the chappa'ai to meet them. Apart from the initial embrace and whispers of greetings to Anise and a respectful bow towards Garshaw, they did not say much to each other as they had quietly and quickly made their way back to the village. Now though, with the darkness of night quickly advancing upon this area of the planet, they were safe and sound in the village hut that served as their base.

“Please, sit,” he said after greetings had been exchanged, gesturing for not only his team to take a seat around the large table that had their evening meal ready to be consumed, but also towards their two guests.

As the six of them sat down around the table and bowls, utensils, and plates full of modest-looking food were passed around, Malek gave control of his arms over to his host. He would concentrate on talking while his host fed both of them. The last time he had tried to eat, talk, and plan at the same time had resulted in him not even touching his meal at all. He had not heard the end of that lack of a proper meal from his host for a while.

“We have captured both Tanith and Ba'al,” Garshaw said after a few moments of silent eating.

Malek felt his host pause mid-way in bringing a piece of flat bread towards their mouth as he stared at their former High Councilor. “Captured?!” he asked, voicing what the rest of his team thought.

“Yes,” Garshaw answered, and he briefly flicked his eyes over at Anise, seeing that there indeed, was a more peaceful, but still determined look upon his friend's face. As far as he knew, Tanith may not have physically hurt Anise and Freya during the time he had been in Tok'ra hands, but Malek was well aware that the Goa'uld's presence had been quite taxing on his friend's mental health. It was also due to Anise's stubbornness that she complete her mission in ensuring that Tanith's information and access was as detrimental to the Goa'uld's plans as possible.

“A team led by Kuris and assisted by one of the Tau'ri warships successfully ran the blockade near Tanith's planet at the beginning of the year. They launched an assault on his base of operations, which was not well guarded by Jaffa and captured him,” Anise said quite proudly.

“What of Ba'al?” Xau asked. “Surely he is the original system lord and not one of the clones?”

“Ba'al was captured a few months after Tanith,” Garshaw answered. “We are quite sure that he is not a clone for the Tau'ri passed on information that Ba'al unleashed the symbiote poison upon his own clones in order to tie up loose ends when the final clone of his tried to implant a clone of the symbiote into the Orici. Both the clone and the implanted symbiote were killed by the Tau'ri. While the Tau'ri were busy with that, our operatives infiltrated the ship that the final clone had been on and found Ba'al himself in the heart of his ship, in the midst of creating another clone.”

“Apparently he should not have killed all of those other clones then,” Risune dryly stated. “Pity.”

“But if the SG teams have seen random clones pop up before, what's to say that the Ba'al that you've captured is not a clone?” Gant asked.

“There are certain cellular markers within the host's body and within a symbiote that even the most sophisticated Tau'ri technology cannot detect,” Anise answered. “We have confirmed, using comparison markers between Ba'al's clone and the one we captured and have determined that we do indeed, have the original system lord.”

If Gant looked offended at the implied insult upon the Tau'ri and their grasp on technology, she did not show it. He could feel his own host twitch slightly but other than that, his host really did not care if insults were leveled at the Tau'ri people. “Then Leto and this unknown Goa'uld working for him are the only ones left,” he said.

“Yes, Malek,” Garshaw answered, giving him a nod. “We have brought something that might be of use to you. We also would like your permission to join your cell for the operation.”

“Missing your title of most notorious, Garshaw?” Risune jokingly asked. “Last we heard just a little under a year ago, the bounty on our heads have grown quite large. I believe figures number into eight digits dead, and nine for alive.”

“Oh you can keep the titles,” Garshaw answered with a smile on her lips. “High Councilor Per'sus did not want to even authorize us bringing this weapon, but I managed to convince the Council to send you back up. After all, if we do not eliminate the final two Goa'uld and allow them to rebuild while we are engaged with the Tau'ri in their fight against the Ori, they will once again, become a grave threat after the Ori are defeated.”

“Be careful with this,” Anise spoke up as she reached into a pouch on her waistbelt, took out a small object, and placed it upon the table, pushing it into the middle. When she removed her hand, Malek could not help but swallow in slightly apprehension as he and his team stared at the object. It was small, oval-shaped with two moon-shaped dents in the middle that indicated that it could be pressed and squeezed down the center. While currently inert, anyone handling it would have to be quite careful, for he or she could accidentally unleash the small object's contents and kill all but one in this room and probably all of the Jaffa that patrolled the village.

Symbiote poison; developed by those at the fallen Revanna base and unleashed by Lantash to get SG-1 and Jacob Carter safely back to the Tau'ri homeworld. It had been originally set to be used by Dr. Daniel Jackson upon those at the system lord summit, until word of Anubis' rise to power was discovered. The Tau'ri kept the crystal that contained the deadly formula and for a while, the Tok'ra thought that it was in good hands until it seemed that Ba'al had somehow acquired the formula. Now, it was a weapon back in Tok'ra hands and they would finally be able to unleash it upon their most hated enemy, the system lords.

“Well,” Gant spoke up after a few minutes of silence. “The best and fastest way to get this bad boy into Leto's stronghold is via the people his Jaffa snatch up to go work in his mines or something. I'll do it.”

“But it will not cover the entirety of the stronghold,” Xau pointed out before Malek could speak. He was not going to protest the logic that Gant put forth, for it was the most practical way, but it was the issue that those who went into the stronghold came out with no memories – would Gant even remember why she was initially there in the first place?

“Well, I do expect you guys to back me up,” Gant answered. “Seriously, I don't want to get my mind scrambled after doing a day's worth of hard labor. When the time comes, I'll unleash it and then you guys come save my sorry ass.”

“We will need communicators and possibly a tracking device,” he said, looking over at Garshaw and Anise. “Are there any such devices on board the ship?”

“We only have two communicators,” Garshaw answered.

In response, Anise pulled a small datapad out of another pouch, but did not activated it. Instead, she flipped it over and popped out a small circular disc, saying, “This is usually used for scanning walls and images, but I think I might be able to modify this to transmit a rough image locator of the interior of the stronghold. If it works, I can probably guide either you, Agent Gant, or the team through areas of the stronghold where there might still be Jaffa and other resistance.”

“Guide Gant if you can, Anise,” Malek said. “We cannot enter until the forcefield is taken down. She can also tell us to what extent the symbiote poison has worked.”

“All right,” the Tau'ri woman said, smiling but had a serious look on her face. “Sonar, poison, and a plan in place. Let's go kick these Goa'uld butts!”

~◊~

A cold drizzle, along with fog covered the area when Malek's team finally launched their operation only less than fifteen hours after Garshaw and Anise arrived. While Garshaw had volunteered to stay behind in the village to not only guard Anise but also rally the villagers to prepare for possible retaliation by Jaffa, Gant had already riled up and made a general mess around one of the Jaffa patrol routes; enough to be caught and taken with the latest group of prisoners.

Malek could feel his host pacing back and forth in their shared space while he himself merely stood at the door of the hut, waiting patiently for news to come in. Though the entire operation was on the premise that they would capture both Leto and the Goa'uld who helped him, he was personally invested in assassinating Leto. Capturing Leto was much too merciful and after everything that had happened, death by extraction was too kind for the Goa'uld. It was as Lantash and Martouf had said long ago: better to kill both symbiote and host quickly than to allow the host to continue to survive with such horrific memories of what the symbiote had done.

There was a crackle over the communicator before Gant's voice came through, saying, “It's done. Where should I be putting this sonar thingy?”

“Find a panel near a sectioned hallway door,” Anise said. “You will need to pop open the panel, but you should be able to put the device anywhere inside of the panel.”

“Copy. Standby.” The few minutes of tense silence was nerve-wracking, but soon, Gant's voice came over the communicator saying, “It's inside. How's it looking on your side?”

Malek saw Anise tap a few things on the small datapad before a smile appeared on her face and she said, “I have a visual and it looks like all corridors on the level that you are in, along with the three above and below your position are clear. It doesn't look like the symbiote poison has spread to the top three floors, but it does look like that there's quite a bit of activity going on. There are groups of Jaffa approaching your position from the south side.”

“All right,” Gant answered, “I'm going to get the northwest panel of that forcefield down. It's where they took all of us in. Meet me at the south entrance.”

That was their signal to go, and with a nod towards Garshaw, he and the other two of his team left. Villagers, alerted by their swift run through the muddy roads stood up, and as he and the others breezed passed houses and people, he could see that they had various weaponry; axes, hoes, even a couple of staff weapons. In the distances behind them, he could also hear Garshaw calling for the villagers to organize and get ready for Jaffa patrols to show up.

As they approached, he saw a shimmer in the distance, just beyond the treeline and well before the stronghold. However, that shimmer disappeared and taking the chance, the three of them increased their speed and ran past where the forcefield used to be. There was no Jaffa in sight as they continued to make their way towards the stronghold, peeling off to go to the south end of the area.

Their approach was detected by two Jaffa guarding the south entrance and though there weren't any covering between them and the entrance, they across the expanse, ducking and dodging as they rapidly firing their zat'nik'tels. The Jaffa guards collapsed in a haze of an electric blue wash, and both Malek and Xau scooped up the abandoned staff weapons. However, more Jaffa spilled through and they fired their weapons, using the narrow entrance as a funnel point.

Smoke filled the air as one after another, Jaffa fell to the onslaught. Malek could hear their shouts within the entrance and a few moments later, another set of golden bursts of deadly energy blasted into the back of the final two Jaffa that had tried to stop the Tok'ra group from entering. Neither he nor his teammates retracted their weapon, not until they saw the Tau'ri, Gant, step out, covered in sweat that mingled in with the stone dust that covered her clothes and hair, but looking quite hale and healthy.

“Thanks for the rescue, guys,” she said, as they retracted their weapons, but still held onto them quite tightly. There would be no mercy for these Jaffa who served Leto, for this was the final assault against the last two Goa'uld. Any Jaffa that got in their way would be killed.

“Status?” Malek curtly asked as they entered the stronghold. They could not afford to waste time by dawdling.

“Apparently, Leto was not mining down below and was actually trying to build a stardrive,” Gant answered. “It's no where near completion yet. We're going to take the south side transport rings up to the top three floors of this place, since it looks like those floors are on a separate air filtration system and was not affected by the poison. There's at least a squadron of Jaffa still left alive patrolling all three floors, and it seemed that Leto and that other Goa'uld have barred themselves in on the top floor.”

“All right,” he said, nodding before crouching down and picked up two grenades. “Pick what you need, but don't weigh yourself too much. We're going to need to travel fast and light.”

“And by the way, guys,” Gant said, as she too picked up a couple of grenades from another dead Jaffa, “very nasty work with that symbiote poison. I'm going to have nightmares about what it does to a Jaffa's symbiote for the rest of my life.”

~~~

“Symbiote poison,” Dian haggardly said, leaning against the door frame as the door slid open. Leto reached out and caught the collapsing Tok'ra and pulled him further into the room, with the door sliding shut. Security and lifesigns sensors that had been installed everywhere in this stronghold had triggered an alarm as soon as multiple lifesigns had winked out in the lower levels of this fortress. Dian had gone down earlier to see what had caused it and to confirm whether or not it was the small Tok'ra cell operating on this planet who had caused it. He had made it back, but now though, it looked like their friend and ally throughout these trying years was not going to survive.

“Then Malek and his team started their assault,” she said as she felt Aldwin's urging to put Dian and his host into the modified sarcophagus they had in this laboratory room.

“Yes,” Dian answered, but when Leto shifted to attempt to lift him up, he hissed in pain and said, “Please, Leto... we do not want to be cured...”

“Dian,” she murmured, keenly feeling Aldwin's sadness mixing in with her own.

Struggling for a moment, Dian blinked and tried to take some deep breaths that seemed to not come, before gripping her arm, saying, “Neither of us can live with what we have done to our people or to innocents. Please, let us die knowing that the plan to end all system lords is going to be successful.”

“It will work, Dian,” she said as she gently laid Dian onto the floor. Ba'al was still out there, and even though she and her helper had been completely cut off from him for about two years by the Ori, the stardrive they had been trying to build to get this fortress and its weaponry into space would be brought to bear upon the last of the system lords. She silently watched as Dian took his last breaths before going still for a moment, before Dian's host, Taelon, emerged for a moment.

There was fear in Taelon's eyes, but allowing Aldwin to take over, she heard her host say, “Rest now, Taelon. Your work is complete. May you find eternal peace in the next life.”

Seeing that their friend was comforted by Aldwin's words, she gently took control as soon as the light in Taelon's eyes died and stood back up. She could feel the worry seeping through Aldwin – the stardrive was no where near complete, but Malek and his team were already launching their assault – if she stopped them now, they would never get another chance to complete their mission. She could instantly recall the Jaffa from assaulting the villages around the fortress, and there would be enough of them to overwhelm Malek and his team. Unlike most other system lords, she did not have the arrogance to actually preside over executions of prisoners that the Jaffa caught. They had standing orders from her to execute any prisoner without hesitation on sight.

_**The Ori are still a threat, Leto,** _ Aldwin said as a beep on another console alerted her.

_**We cannot wait any longer, Aldwin,** _ she replied as she brought up several displays, all showing some strange movement going on near the west region. _**You know what to do when the time comes.** _ Zooming in, the displays showed a rather large object of some sort being pushed through the swaying trees and a moment later, despite the circumstances, she could not help but give a bark of laughter. Somehow, the villagers from the west had been clever enough to conceal a trebuchet, of all things, from the Jaffa patrols. Clever bastards.

There was a mental sigh from her host before he reluctantly said, _**As you wish.** _

She turned slightly as she heard the muffled but distant shouts of the Jaffa on this particular floor and corridor before a rather violent tremor rocked the entire place. Weapons were completely offline due to the power required for the stardrive to be tested at each interval of completion. She pressed a few buttons and deliberately weakened the shields – let the villagers tear this place apart – she did all that she could do to stop the system lords. It would be up to the rest of the Tok'ra to take down Ba'al. As whatever the trebuchet was hurling towards her fortress continued to rock the place, she just hoped that whatever the future held, it look down upon the Tok'ra with more kindness and peace than two thousand years of war and bloodshed.

~~~

“What the hell was that?!” Xau exclaimed as the momentary whine of staff blasts exchanged by them and the remaining Jaffa on the top floor stopped as soon as the first of many tremors shook the stronghold.

“Don't know!” Gant shouted as all of them tried to stay upright as the floor beneath them shuddered quite a bit. “What ever the hell it is, its damn near going to take out this place soon!”

“Malek!” the slightly tinny-sounding voice of Anise came through the communicator that Gant had handed to him when they had met up on the south entrance. “We are headed towards the fortress via teltac. Villagers from the west have started to shell the area and all villagers ringed around are converging towards you, attacking quite indiscriminately. Apologies on not being able to stop them, but they are very angry. We will not be able to land the cargo ship for long without ourselves also being targeted. Let us know when you are ready to evacuate.”

“Copy,” he said, and just as the ground beneath them rumbled again, he gestured for his team to open fire and take down the rest of the Jaffa. Golden bolts lanced into the chests, legs, and even a head of the remaining Jaffa guards as the four of them charged. They didn't have a lot of time and as soon as they got to the end of the hall where a final door stood in their way, he gestured for Gant to pop open the panel and override the controls on the door.

Malek, Risune, and Xau stood ready, staff weapons primed as a tone sounded near the door and it slowly cracked open from the ground up before creating the most awful screeching noise as the locking mechanism was overridden. There was a body lying on the ground near a strange-looking sarcophagus near the center of the room as the three of them charged in and fired off a volley towards the lone person who stood on the far side with his back turned towards them. The bolts impacted and harmlessly dissipated against a reddish-orange columned field – blocked by a personal shield created by a kara kesh. However, none of them fired off another shot as the Goa'uld system lord turned to face them...

_Aldwin..._

_**Malek! Move!** _

It was only because his host yelled at him that he snapped out of his sudden shock and dove to the side, just as a ripple of energy from the kara kesh blasted the air where he had been. Skidding behind the sarcophagus, he saw Risune being blown back into a wall while heard Gant swear up a storm as she tried to attack with her staff weapon, before she too, was thrown back by the force of the kara kesh blast. Shock from seeing the one person he thought dead along with forty-four others of Revanna was still coursing through him, but it was the determination to survive that bled from his host that kept him anchored to reality.

It was also then that he noticed who else from Revanna had survived and had be made host to the system lords – Taelon. Unfortunately, both Goa'uld and host were quite dead, and he saw that Taelon had died with pain etched upon his face – most likely from symbiote poison. Xau's screams pierced his awareness as he shook his head and tried to refocus himself. Glancing up from the sarcophagus, he saw that Leto, he was quite sure that the Goa'uld currently inside of Aldwin was the cunning system lord, was wielding two kara kesh, not the traditional single one that system lords usually applied.

Xau was being tortured by the left hand kara kesh and while it seemed that Leto was quite concentrated on scrambling Xau's mind, the right hand kara kesh was also primed for attack. He heard a grunt and glanced over towards the wall where Gant had been slammed into, seeing the Tau'ri blearily open her eyes. Something skittered across the floor from her towards him and he saw that it was a small Tau'ri weapon that seemed to contain only one or two shots.

“Tranq,” Gant whispered before closing her eyes again.

He realized that Garshaw or Anise must have given Gant the weapon in the event that she encountered the system lords first. All thoughts of assassinating Leto left his mind as he immediately snatched up the weapon and popped up from the cover spot of the sarcophagus. He could not kill Leto, not when there was a chance to save Leto's host. In the second before he squeezed the trigger, he aimed for the legs of Leto. The tranquilizer dart passed through the kara kesh shield just as Leto stopped attacking Xau and brought up his shield via the right hand kara kesh.

Malek felt air leave his chest as a near-invisible wave of force punched into him from Leto's left hand kara kesh. The tranquilizer gun fell from his hand as he hit the floor quite hard. However, its job was done, for the initial dart struck Leto's legs and a moment later, the system lord crumpled to the ground.

He laid there for a moment, trying to catch his breath, as he felt relief ebb into his own mind from his host. A tremor on the floor that they were lying on was what caused him to get up, still feeling quite sore as he looked over to see Xau shaking her head, trying to get rid of the effects of the kara kesh mind scramble. Crawling over to where Gant was, he nudged her as her eyes opened and she too, tried to get up, albeit more slowly and full of pain.

“Risune,” he heard Xau say as he looked back to see the fourth member of his cell stir quite groggily.

“We need to go,” he said, even though he knew that his teammates were not quite coherent. Getting up, he staggered towards where the knocked out system lord was lying and ripped the kara kesh devices off of his hands, tossing them to the side. It had not escaped his notice that at the end of the room, there was a ring-like carving on the floor, which indicated transport rings. Why did Leto not use the rings to escape was beyond his knowledge, but he didn't really care right now.

Dragging the unconscious Leto towards the outline of the rings, he deposited the body there before returning to help Gant up and hobbled her towards the rings. He kept a firm grip on her shoulders as another tremor rocked the area. Leaving Gant at the rings, he pulled out the communication device and snapped it on, saying, “Mission accomplished, Garshaw and Anise. We have captured the system lord Leto. The other system lord is dead. We are at the top floor of the structure and there seems to be a ring transport here. Can you get us out?”

“Yes,” Garshaw answered in a crisp tone. “We are inbound to your position in two minutes.”

As Xau, with a very groggy Risune slung partially over her shoulder for support, made their way to the ring, he went back for one last body. It didn't matter if Taelon had been host to a Goa'uld – he still deserved a proper funeral as was his right as a Tok'ra host. A few seconds after he secured the body inside of the ring outline, the familiar sounds of an activating ring transport was heard and moments later, they were all whisked away.

~◊~

While a quiet atmosphere usually prevailed whenever groups of Tok'ra were traveling via cargo ship, the quiet atmosphere that blanketed this particular ship was quite unsettled. Malek leaned not quite against the cargo bay's door as he gazed dispassionately at their prisoner who had been gagged and tied up, but was not sedated. It was only when they were in the relative safety of hyperspace did Garshaw and Anise finally find out who exactly his team had captured.

Now though, three hours into their journey towards the newly established Tok'ra homeworld, Risune was still being healed in the cockpit, but Xau refused to go into the cargo hold, as did Anise. Garshaw still sat in the pilot's chair, despite having placed the ship into automatic pilot mode, but no one wanted to venture back into the cargo hold to even try to repair ship systems that had been damaged during the natives' assault on the stronghold. Everyone, except for perhaps Gant, was too unnerved by both of their live and dead prisoners.

“So what's with all the wigged out looks, chief?” Gant asked as he heard her approach and lean against the opposite side of the entrance way. “I noticed that all three of you hesitated to continue to shoot once the first volley impacted Leto's shield.”

“The host's name is Aldwin,” he quietly said as he tried to not let the malevolent glare that Leto was leveling on him affect him too much. Even his host was shifting quite nervously in their shared space, though he could feel that nervousness slowly transform into anger. “Aldwin was a dear friend of both Anise and me. He, along with Taelon, the other host there, and forty-three other Tok'ra were sent to establish the Revanna base.”

“Oh my god,” Gant breathed out after a moment. “That's horrible. I am so sorry...”

“As am I,” he said, nodding slightly in acknowledgment of Gant's sympathies towards what would be rippling through the remainder of the Tok'ra ranks soon.

“You don't have to watch over him, Malek,” she said. “I can do it. You've all suffered too much – please let me help ease your burdens.”

“Thank you for your generous offer, Agent Gant, but this is my duty, my mission, and I will see it through to the end.”

There was a moment of silence before he heard Gant shift a bit and left, understanding that even though it pained him to stare at the system lord that held his friend hostage, it was necessary. He was quite sure that like Ba'al, Leto had quite an ego and would attempt to mock and belittle the Tok'ra all the way up to his execution. There was no danger, unlike Tanith whom he heard from Anise that the minor system lord was being kept quite drugged, of Leto attempting to kill himself and his host via symbiote suicide.

No... Ba'al and Leto, even in modern times, were the wiliest of the system lords – they would do anything to stay alive and perhaps escape, if given the right opportunity. It was the only reason why he clung on to the hope that perhaps Aldwin could be eventually be freed.

 

~*~*~*~

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About that James Bond reference - it's a paraphrase of what I said in real-life a few years ago to an acquaintance who didn't know who/what "James Bond" was (though I wasn't describing him in the context of real-world intelligence agents). As you might have already guessed, Malek's host is from Earth (I haven't revealed which region of Earth just yet - its not the USA). While the host might be a brilliant academic, I like to think that he found his studies much more engaging and interesting than 'pop culture' stuff. Hence his lack of knowledge about "James Bond".
> 
> As for the flashbacks, I think this might be the final one as we plunge back into the 'modern day' section of the story from the next chapter until the end!


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 10**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

Even though nighttime on their new homeworld was slightly shorter than the day cycle, activities around the main city seemed to never cease. Anise watched their people, nighttime sentinels, wander to and from on their patrol routes throughout the city. The threat of the Goa'uld may have been completely gone, but there was still the threat of the Ori, and thus they kept vigilance. While normally at this hour, she would be sleeping, it was only because of what she and her friends were about to undertake, that she stayed awake. Her host was currently sleeping, but it was more of a light dozing than actual sleep, for both them were quite nervous.

Quiet, near-silent footsteps approaching from an adjacent hall caused her to slip back slightly into the alcove that led into the room. She heard the sounds of Aldwin getting dressed in the room behind her stop for the moment. However, there was no need for her to have hid, for she saw Malek appear around the corner, carrying a satchel in one hand along with an extra zat'nik'tel in the other. “Malek,” she quietly said, and heard Aldwin resume getting dressed.

Malek stopped before her, but did not peek into the room, and neither did she turn – privacy was valued above everything else, and both of them had been determined to give their friend that peace of mind. “Is he ready?” Malek asked, looking not at her, but all around the area.

“Ready,” Aldwin's voice, stronger than it had been earlier in the beginning of the night when he had woken up, said after a few moments.

She turned slightly and couldn't help but give her friend a small smile – though Aldwin was still too pale looking, even after a round of treatment that she had done with the healing device, there was fire in his eyes. Malek handed over the extra zat'nik'tel to Aldwin as she took the satchel noting that it was heavy, but contained supplies that would last them a few days. As Malek took the lead and headed down the empty hall, Aldwin followed, and she took the rear. Discreetly, she slipped the small memory recall device into a small pocket within the satchel. She hoped that it was not needed, but should the worst happen, then they needed to be ready.

Quietly, they made their way down empty halls, pausing every so often to watch out for patrols. Anise remembered that after Malek, Risune, and Xau had joined the rest of the Tok'ra at their new homeworld, all three of them had immediately recommended several changes to security measures. Now, they were trying to escape towards the teltac hangar bay without even being noticed. It was the least secure option of getting off of the planet – the chappa'ai was definitely too well guarded even at this time of the night.

Two turns down sets of long halls, their luck at leaving undetected ran out as two Tok'ra who had been patrolling near the hangar bay turned the corner and spotted them. Before either Tok'ra could question them, two blue bolts lanced out from Malek's zat'nik'tel, striking each once. However, as soon as they slipped to unconsciousness and hit the ground, alarms started to blare.

“Well, at least we know the body sensors work,” she barely heard Malek say as he sheathed his weapon and shouted, “Run!”

Anise kept up with the two men in front of her, zipping around corridors as they ran as fast as they could to the hangar bay. Body sensors, modified from the memory recall devices they had, had been attached to each security guard to monitor their vitals during patrol. If any abnormalities, such as unconsciousness, was induced, it would automatically set off alarms and wake the Council and sentinels. The fact that it worked and there were now ear-piercingly loud alarms sounding all over the place gave her some comfort, but was also quite annoying.

Running into the vast hangar, the three of them headed to the nearest cargo ship and sped up the ramp and into the hold. Anise smacked the panel on the inside, forcing the ramp to close, as the sounds of sentinels and more security guards advancing towards the hangar were heard. A few moments later, the little cargo ship zoomed away.

Placing the satchel down near a column in the cargo hold, she followed Aldwin into the cockpit, greatly concerned at just how pale he looked after that brief but intense run to the hangar. Freya, having woken up during the run, reminded her that they had seen a healing device within the satchel and she went back to get it, just as Aldwin seated himself in the co-pilot's chair and pulled up star charts. Returning to the cockpit, she stood by as the rapidly dwindling night sky gave way to thinning atmosphere and stars above the clouds. The cargo ship rocketed to space, and even though inertial compensators did not cause for a rough ride, she could still feel some rumblings all around her. However, their ascent smoothed out as they entered space proper, flying far and away from the planet's gravity well so they could enter hyperspace.

“Set course for here,” she heard Aldwin say, still panting a bit as he pointed to the planet on the star chart.

Anise blinked in surprise and puzzlement, recognizing the planet, but before she could say a word, it was Malek who asked, “Why are we going back to Leto's stronghold?”

“There are a few things that we might need that were left behind here,” Aldwin replied as he zoomed back out on the star chart and searched for another planet before bringing it up on the screen. “Our final destination is actually here.”

“That's a planet belonging to the Ataniks,” she said, frowning slightly. Surely her friend was well aware that the now-extinct Ataniks created technology to prevent those blended with symbiotes from accessing items. How could Leto have hid something there or...

“As I said before, earlier today,” Aldwin spoke up, “Leto entrusted me with her final mission. I could not have completed it while she was still within me.”

None of them said anymore for the moment before Malek broke the silence by pushing a few buttons on the console, saying, “Setting destination for the first planet. There is an Ori establishment between here and the planet on the fastest route, but we should be able to bypass them.” A hyperspace window opened up and not a moment later, the little cargo ship zoomed in, on its way to complete the last wish of a Goa'uld-turned-Tok'ra.

~◊~

As soon as the autopilot was engaged, Malek dropped his hands from the piloting mechanism and spun slightly in the chair, asking, “Why did you do it?”

“Pardon?” Aldwin asked, looking slightly puzzled just as Anise crouched down to aim the healing device in her hand at Aldwin's chest.

“Why did you do it?” he repeated his question, though how he managed to keep the tone of his voice as neutral as possible without giving away the mix of sadness and anger he now felt towards his friend from showing. The initial guilt he had for pursuing Leto, capturing both her and Aldwin, allowing his host to aggressively beat Leto against the bars of the cell before her execution, and then ultimately pushing the button to execute the symbiote, was gone. It had been replaced by sorrow and anger, not only at himself, but also towards both Leto and Aldwin for putting him and his host through so much hell that ultimately became intensely personal in the past month.

He saw Aldwin's eyes turn opaque as Anise finished the spot healing, stood back up and leaned back against the cargo hold console, also curious. “It was the only way.”

“That is a bullshit answer,” he snapped, folding his arms across his chest, ignoring his host's attempt at trying to rein in his resentment and harsh words. He had definitely spent too much time around Agent Gant whenever she was yelling at the incompetence of a non-working machine or device to have picked up the vulgarities of her planetary region's language. Not that his host's own set of vulgar language was not adequate – he just did not feel like yelling at Aldwin in a language none of them, except for his host, knew.

There was a slight look of disbelief mixing in with confusion that graced Aldwin's expression for a moment before it was smoothed out back to neutral, with Aldwin saying, “Had Leto not convinced Ba'al that she wanted to serve him again when we had just been revived, we would not have had the chance to embed any agents into his forces after Anubis fell. Since the beginning, I knew what she was, and what she had done before allying herself with the Tok'ra. She felt that this was the only way we could finally bring down the system lords.”

“Either of you could have reached out,” he argued. “Every Tok'ra is always ready to assist any operative in enemy territory. You did not have to demonstrate weapons or kill thousands. Were either of you even aware of what you...what Anubis did at Raisa?!”

“Yes,” Aldwin flatly replied. “After hearing news of Raisa and of the Ashrak, we scaled back and concentrated on ensuring Ba'al did not have the upper hand during Anubis' rampage. Dian and Leto directed not only your cell, but other operatives towards targets of value that would draw Ba'al attention away from helping Anubis. After Anubis fell to the Tau'ri's Ancient weapon, both of them opened up many opportunities for your cell to assassinate many system lords both major and minor.”

“And I am supposed to thank you for that?!” he asked, incredulous at just how arrogant both Dian and Leto had behaved. “We assassinated only five, Aldwin. Five system lords. That was not even a drop in the wide open sea of how many there were.”

“Yes,” Aldwin answered, nodding slightly. “Other operatives took opportunity where there was one and killed a few more. Dian, Leto, and rebel Jaffa killed most of the others until the Ori showed up. Yes, we expanded Ba'al's territory, but we also made him a rather large target for the Tau'ri to stop. Had the Ori not shown up, Leto was going to finally call for help from your cell.”

“Then why?” he asked, pleading and hoping that his friend could help him make sense of this entire mess that he still could not fully comprehend. “The arrogance between Leto and Dian is that of the system lords. Playing false gods and manipulating people is not our way of life. Why did you not surrender to us after you were cut off from Ba'al by the Ori? Why make us assault the stronghold with the symbiote poison? Surely the Jaffa that served Leto were aware that the Goa'uld are not gods.”

He saw Aldwin shake his head slowly, saying, “They were not aware and were still loyal to Ba'al, even though he had specifically assigned them for Leto and Dian's protection. Leto wanted me to fulfil her last wish when there was true peace, but with the Tau'ri occupied with the Ori threat and very little Tok'ra activity that supported their fight, she felt that it was time to accelerate her plans. That's why your assault on the stronghold worked. Her final wish will help the Tok'ra become stronger to face the Ori threat and help the Tau'ri.”

“Leto could have helped us more by confessing and stopping the execution,” Anise spoke up, startling both him and Aldwin, for they had virtually forgotten that she was still there. “Vala Mal Doran said that she was an expert in crystal-based technology; we could use her help right now in combating the Ori. Her knowledge was worth much more than whatever she had to offer in death to help us become stronger.”

“You're wrong,” Aldwin said, glancing up at her, and Malek could see in Aldwin's eyes, the regret and still-fresh grief that was being valiantly held back. “I just hope that at the end, it was not a fool's errand. Even if she had confessed last minute, would either of you have believed her story after all that we have done?”

Ashamed, especially at how he and his host had acted hours earlier, he briefly looked away, seeing out of the corner of his eyes, Anise nod as she said, “Perhaps. The level of intelligence from Leto far exceeded that of Tanith. Freya and I might have extended you and Leto some trust, had Dr. Jackson or Vala Mal Doran not been there, but Leto's role would have been similar to Tanith's role when he had been among the Tok'ra.”

“That is also the reason why you are not an operative, Anise,” he quietly said before Aldwin could say it as he looked back and up at her. “Both you and Freya have good, strong hearts and minds, but Tanith nearly broke both of you. Yes, we have had Goa'uld defect to our cause before, but Aldwin said it: Leto and Dian used all of us. Tanith mimicked his host's voice and copied his personality, even Jolinar did it to Colonel Carter to try to survive the Ashrak; therefore, we would have no idea to verify if it was Aldwin talking if he still was host to Leto.”

“You've done it before, haven't you, Malek? You've suppressed your host.”

He looked over as he unfolded his arms and let them lightly rest on the chair, staring quite passively at Aldwin who had asked the question. “Yes,” he answered as he felt his host stir uneasily. “All of them at least once in their lifetimes so that my hosts and I could survive and complete the mission. Therefore, I would not have believed you had Leto confessed at the last minute.”

Silence fell over the three of them; friends of old but torn apart by desperate, rash, and nearly-unfathomable decisions made during a long war that had now finally ended. Though on the surface, each was relieved that they were still alive, even though one of their group had sacrificed herself to end it all, and another was dying, only time would tell if the deep wounds cut into each of them would heal.

~◊~

The faint, luminous glow of an active display panel flashed across his face, but it was not bright enough to disturb the sleep of his friends. Even with the dimmed lights around the cargo ship, done to give mainly the hosts of Anise and Malek some semblance of a day-night cycle, Aldwin continued to read what was being displayed on the small datapad. Both Freya and Anise were still sound asleep when he had carefully taken the datapad she always seemed to carry around with her in a waistbelt pouch.

It had not been out of spite that he had taken the datapad, but out of curiosity. Cut off from any significant news since the Ori invasion, he was curious as to what was going on in the universe. Both he and Leto had known that it was still somewhat dangrous to implement Leto's final wish, but they could not wait for the Ori to keel over and die. The Tok'ra needed the boost in power now to help effectively combat the Ori with their other allies. He wanted to know just how dire it was out there and did not want to disturb his friends' rest.

Though Anise's datapad contained mainly liner notes about various cultures or specific items she was in the middle of researching, there were more than a few small reports about the conversion of planets to Ori worshipping. Very little news mentioned the free Jaffa nation, though he was surprised that they had finally based themselves on Dakara. Apparently, the Tau'ri trusted the free Jaffa enough to allow them guardianship of such a powerful weapon.

There was also mention of something or someone called the 'Orici', but as he searched more, he found nothing to describe what an 'Orici' was, except that Ba'al had attempted to implant the 'Orici' with a clone of his symbiote self. The extraction of the symbiote and implantation of a Tok'ra symbiote in reverse failed, and slowly killed the 'Orici'. It eventually culminated in the 'Orici' ascending. That was grim news indeed... it was already enough that somehow, the Ancients had stopped Anubis though means which he or Leto knew not, but now there was an ascended Ori running amok along the higher planes of existence.

“You should be sleeping.”

He looked up from his browsing towards where the whisper, so thick in accent that he could barely understand the words, came from. It took him a moment to let his eyes adjust to the near-darkness before he heard a shuffle on the floor of the cargo hold and soft footsteps approach. The instant that Malek sat down next to him, he knew that it was actually not the symbiote, but rather the host. There was a remarkable difference between the host and symbiote, especially in the way each carried himself.

Even in this dim of an environment, Malek always carried himself with a strict soldier-like discipline; proud, sitting/standing straight and tall, and a presence of command. Having glimpsed only twice before of Malek's host, and now sitting next to him, Aldwin saw that Malek's host had none of those traits. There was an air of nervousness that surrounded the host, but also a seemingly kinder, gentler presence that did not seem confrontational unless provoked, passive but extremely calculating eyes that spoke of intelligence. It was a far cry from the angry, almost irrational behavior he and Leto had been subjected to before Leto's execution – as if Malek's host was giving him, Aldwin, another chance and apologizing for what he had done to them.

“I couldn't sleep,” he admitted, which was true. He had tried to sleep, but nightmares had plagued him. “I wanted to know what had gone on for the past two years.”

“You should have taken mine instead, then,” Malek's host said, bringing his own datapad out of his waistbelt pouch and handed over. Aldwin placed Anise's datapad down and gingerly took the offered one, as Malek's host continued to say, “Anise's is full of research notes in some sort of organizational filing capacity that even I cannot comprehend. It's a wonder how you managed to find any relevant information.”

“I had a lot of practice,” he half-murmured as he activated the pad and found it a lot more organized than Anise's datapad.

An unbidden smile twitched up the corners of his lips as he saw just how rigid of a system Malek's host maintained on the data pad – each report, image, or message received was filed to a relevant keyword, which was then cross-referenced to each related piece of data and tagged with just how many times the file was accessed. Flags of importance were sparingly used on each file, as were color coded materials. Not even the most disciplined of scientists the Tok'ra had, had such a filing system. Even a simple vague search for a word brought up all relevant data that were a high percentage match to what the user was possibly looking for.

“Aldwin,” Malek's host spoke up after a few minutes of silence, having not moved from where he was sitting. “I apologize for what I did to both of you in the cell.”

“And I too, apologize to not only you, but also to Malek, Anise, and Freya, for what we had to do, to maintain our cover,” he replied, glancing up from the data report he was reading through. “Yes, we were in safe hands, but with the way we Tok'ra are, neither Leto nor I honestly believed that the Council would have forgiven our actions. They would have never let us go or allowed Leto to separate from me. Anise's assessment was the most optimistic option available had we confessed. Both Leto and I had been prisoners for so long that we just wanted our freedom.”

“Unfortunately, you are probably right about the Council,” Malek's host said after a moment. “Malek is currently sleeping, but I will let him know of your words.”

“Thank you.”

“You should get some rest,” Malek's host said, as Aldwin saw the faint outline of him shift and return to where he had been sleeping. “Even if it is just closing your eyes and counting Ataniks or something.”

Even though he knew that Malek's host could not seen his expression, he still gave him a puzzled look before saying, “I don't even know what an Atanik looks like.”

“Freya thinks that they were a race of short, cat-like creatures,” Malek's host said.

“That is what our research showed,” Anise's sleepy voice broke into their conversation. “It is not yet dawn on our homeworld...”

A dubious look crossed Aldwin's face as he shook his head slightly. He had no intention of counting cat-like creatures, but it did prove to be a strange image that was now stuck in his head. Sighing, he said, “I'll try my best, and I apologize for disturbing you, Anise.” There was a grunt of acknowledgment from the sleepy Tok'ra. However, he couldn't help but ask one more question to Malek's host before silence settled down again, saying, “Before you go back to sleep, though, would you be willing to give me your name?”

Silence answered his question and he thought it was too late to receive his answer. His question, however, caused Anise to wake up once more as he heard her curiously shift on the ground where she had been resting. Glancing over at her, he saw the dim outline of her shaking her head slightly before shrugging, indicating that she did not know if Malek's host was still awake or not.

The momentary silence was broken though, as Malek's host said, “I am Dr. Alexei Nikolayevich Tereshkov of Earth.”

Unfortunately, neither he or Anise had much time to mentally process the revelation as an unusual shudder ran through the ship, causing all lights inside of the ship to turn back on as persistent alarms started to blare. It was swiftly followed by a rather loud bang and even before the three of them made it to the cockpit, the ship buckled quite violently.

“Interdiction field!” Malek said, slipping into the pilot's seat, as alarms started to blare and sparks started to fly from various panels and from the console. He hit the console rather hard to silence the alarms.

Aldwin managed to grab onto the escape pod and cargo hold console before another tremor rocked the ship. He caught Anise's flailing arm and pulled her towards the console as they saw the cargo ship's viewport light up with explosions and streaks of blue-white energy bursts. There were no more shudders, but instead, with Malek piloting the tiny ship, they were diving and flying in a very erratic manner to avoid being hit. “Ori ship must have pulled us out of hyperspace,” Malek said in a strained voice as a display popped up to show a single ship orbiting the planet.

“I was not aware that they had the technological capability to create or maintain an interdiction field,” Anise said, as she clutched part of the cargo hold console as the teltac dove quite steeply before leveling out for a few moments.

“There were rumors,” Malek began, but never finished his thoughts as his console beeped again and Aldwin saw another blip appear on the display.

A burst of static suddenly sounded over a general frequency before a voice resolved over the communication channel, saying, “...repeat, cargo ship, this is Colonel Samantha Carter, commander of the Tau'ri vessel, _General Hammond_. Do you receive?”

Malek immediately hit another button on the console while maintaining as best of evasive maneuvers as possible, saying, “We are receiving, Colonel Carter. This is Malek of the Tok'ra.”

“Malek,” Carter stated, though Aldwin could clearly hear the surprise in her voice. “I wasn't aware that the Tok'ra had an ongoing operation here.”

“We do not, Colonel,” Malek answered as the cargo ship executed a loop and filled the viewport with two incoming Tau'ri-derived gliders. “We were pulled out of hyperspace while embarking on our own mission elsewhere.”

“All right. Standby then and stay with the X-302s near you. We'll have you guys out of here in no time.” The channel was left open, but there was a click over the comm line as they heard Colonel Carter say, “Concentrate all firepower on the Ori ship at this point and give the green light for the SG teams.”

It was a rather dazzling display of light and power as the three of them watched from a distance, flanked by the two Tau'ri gliders, rail guns and bursts of energy beams lance from the Tau'ri attack vessel and into the Ori ship. It impacted a certain area on the Ori ship's shield, but it was a concentrated barrage that seemed to make that point glow white. As the Ori ship retaliated, Aldwin could see the Tau'ri ship take a beating, but it seemed that its shields were holding for now.

What felt like only a few moments, but in reality was a few long minutes, the Ori vessel suddenly broke off its attack and turned to run. The Tau'ri vessel did not pursue, but over the open channel, the three of them heard Carter receive a message from one of the SG team members below, saying, “SG-1 reports that the interdiction field generator has been successfully taken and disabled. Unfortunately, the Prior that was attached to this place surprisingly peaced out.”

“Good,” Carter replied. “The Ori ship also jumped into hyperspace. Casualties?”

“Four, Eleven, and Thirteen were wiped out in the first wave. We have a few others injured and not looking good,” SG-1's leader replied. “We're dialing the gate right now to get them back ASAP.”

“Copy. We'll stay here until you're all back home,” Carter answered. There was a click over the system before Carter said, “Malek, the field has been shut down. You should be able to get into hyperspace. Good luck on your mission.”

“Much appreciated, Colonel,” Malek answered. “May your people have a speedy recovery from their injuries. Malek out.” As the two Tau'ri gliders peeled off, Malek maneuvered the ship into open space and opened the hyperspace window. A moment later, there was a tug and they leapt back into the streaming space of distant stars and systems.

As Malek leaned back in the pilot's chair and hit a button on the console to set autopilot, Aldwin released his rather tight grip on the cargo hold console and shook his hands out. Anise had done the same, though she approached the co-pilot's seat and took it while calling up several diagnostic displays. He gingerly approached and leaned on Anise's seat as the three of them grimly looked at all systems that had been damaged in the brief space battle.

Hyperdrive was down to fifty percent while cloaking was virtually gone. Sublight engines were operating at sixty percent, barely above the threshold to make it out of a planet's atmosphere. Fortunately, life support and critical systems had not been damaged too much, but shields were down to thirty percent. It was going to be a rather rough landing with that little of shields. With the hyperdrive operating at only half-power, it would take them thirty-six hours to get there instead of the eighteen hours more they had had. They had enough supplies, but even after two treatments, one before they had left and another full one administered only less than twelve hours ago, Aldwin was not sure if his failing body would have the strength to complete Leto's last wish.

He quietly lifted himself up from leaning on the co-pilot's chair and went to the cargo hold. Crouching before one of the columns in the hold, he pressed a couple of areas on the column and a moment later, a panel full of crystals popped out with a hiss. Waving away the acrid smoke that had accompanied the opening of the panel, he sighed as he looked at what was displayed before him. Leto and him had been great at creating tunneling crystals and new prototype devices that used crystals, but neither of them had really learned how to repair a ship.

Closing his eyes, he sorted through his memories, trying to stem the tide of grief that came with it. However, it was useless as he only glimpsed flashes of muddled memories from his former symbiote – there was nothing he could remember or use. Opening his eyes, he glanced at the array of crystals and removed a burnt-looking one, briefly holding it up and away before placing it on the ground. The least he could do was to remove the damaged ones to prevent any short-circuits should they be attacked again.

Another panel parallel and opposite of his was opened as he glanced across to see Malek—no, it was Malek's host judging from the way he held himself, Dr. Alexei Nikolayevich Tereshkov of the Tau'ri—crouched before the panel. The Tau'ri host pulled a few burnt crystals out of his own panel and opened up yet another one to take an undamaged one out of that panel.

“Blowing up ships is all good and fun until you actually have to repair one,” he heard Malek's host murmur in a thick accent that he could barely understand. Then a string of words that he did not understand at all issued from the Tau'ri's mouth as he watched him examine the two undamaged crystals in the light. Inserting one in where a damaged one had been removed, he saw Malek's host frown slightly before wiggling the crystal. Unfortunately, the crystal did not light up on the panel, and Aldwin heard more muttering in the same unknown language.

“Pass me the light blue one on your panel, please,” Malek's host politely said. Aldwin obliged, and handed it over, just as he heard Anise step into the cargo hold. The Tau'ri insert the crystal into a panel, saying, “I was abducted by a government-sponsored organization on Earth about five months before I ended up in Sokar's ship. My mother and father were assassinated when I was five, so they couldn't threaten family. Instead, they threatened harm on friends and acquaintances I knew, forcing me to reverse engineer many Goa'uld technology they had stolen from Stargate Command. What they were really after was for me to create a naquadah bomb or some variant of it.”

Malek's host fell silent for a moment before saying, “Orange crystal, please.”

“Which one?” Aldwin asked, as he spotted two orange ones in his panel, one long and thin, another one quite stubby but also thin.

“Short one. Anise, please give me the green one in that other panel.”

He yanked the stubby crystal out, noting that it was quite lodged in his panel and placed it in Malek's host's palm, while Anise handed over a dark green crystal that had a slight smoky shade to it. As the Tau'ri kept his eyes on the task, and resumed fiddling with the panel, he continued to say, “Then they found another stargate and decided to open a wormhole. After making sure that atmospheric conditions were adequate, they forced me though – they wanted me to help identify more of the same tech they needed. Unfortunately, we had landed on Sokar's homeworld, and that is how I wound up on his ship.”

“But we now know that Stargate Command has naquadah bombs,” Anise spoke up as she sat cross-legged on the ground before the two of them. “Does this organization still exist?”

“Possibly,” Malek's host replied, placing both crystals into the panel and watched with a satisfied look as both crystals lit up. “I have no interest in ever going back unless forced to, so I don't know if they still exist.”

Sliding the panel back into its housing, Aldwin watched as Malek's host got up and strode back into the cockpit for a moment before returning. “Seventy percent for sublight engines,” he said, sitting back down and begun plucking out all of the burnt crystals from the panel that he, Aldwin, was working on earlier. “I don't think the hyperdrive can be repaired to go any faster though.”

“Shields?” Aldwin asked, popping open another panel, ignoring the look of concern that flashed through his friends' eyes at the unspoken worry they had for his health. He didn't want to be an even larger burden on them as he already was, and therefore, vowed to himself to stay as strong as he could.

There was a sigh as Malek's host pushed the hyperdrive panel back into its housing and took a look at the recently-opened panel. “Malek is a bit grumpy that neither of you know how to repair ships,” he said with a touch of a smile in both his eyes and lips.

That brought a smile to both Aldwin and Anise, as Anise replied with, “So what do we call you? Surely not by your full name?”

“Alexei,” came the reply. “That is what friends called me. Hand me a blue crystal from that other panel.”

As Anise took a dark blue one from the open panel they seemed to be scavenging crystals from and handed it over to Aldwin, who then handed it to Alexei, Anise asked, “Your title, I'm curious...what are you a doctor of?”

“Nuclear physics and engineering,” Alexei answered, though the tone of his voice was a bit short as Aldwin saw him jam the blue crystal into the shields panel with a little more force than was necessary. “The longest red and yellow crystals.” The crystals were duly passed to him and a few moments later, the newly inserted crystals lit up on the panel and the panel was pushed back into its housing. Dusting his hands, Alexei remained crouched on the ground as he said, “I may be Tau'ri, but I do not care much for them, not after what they had done to me.”

Aldwin watched Alexei's head bow for a moment before Malek returned to the forefront, saying, “My host is still not comfortable with presenting himself and considers the Tok'ra more home and family than those of the Tau'ri. He is also afraid that the organization that had abducted him still exists and may still be looking for him, if they do not presume him dead.”

“I apologize, Malek,” Anise said, “I did not mean to offend your host with my questions.”

“No, no,” Malek answered, shaking his head slightly, “He is not offended. He just does not like to talk too much about his past. I believe that the fact that he has revealed even this much about himself to you shows that he trusts all three of you a great deal. After all, he did not even reveal himself to his teammates or to Agent Gant in the years that we were closely working with them.”

 

~*~*~*~

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 11**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

Something about the planet had unsettled him even before he had his team had holed up here in their quest to defeat Leto. Sometimes it was how the indigenous population acted whenever riled up, proved especially with the unfortunate consequences of what Garshaw and Anise had faced during that final assault. Most of the time though, it was always the deep woods that covered nearly the entire continent.

Even with the noise that the teltac made upon landing in a small clearing in the woods, the sounds of native birds, mammals, and reptiles were never heard. There seemed to be an eerie silence that always blanketed the area whenever he and his team had traversed through the forests. It had made both Malek and his host nervous, but not once did they ever encounter any sort of creature.

Of course, locals always had legends of a great and terrifying creature that roamed the woods, but it was more of a tale to tell children than it was to keep adults out. Jaffa patrol strolled through the woods with no fear, and many food items were harvested from the dense growth. He sometimes wondered if it was legends made up by the villagers to prevent people from straying too much and getting caught by Jaffa patrols. However, there was absolutely nothing to be afraid of, but nevertheless, Malek had never felt at ease.

Now though, after trekking through the greenery and across the field, towards what was left of the ruined structure that had housed Leto and Dian, he was somewhat glad to be out and in the open. He could feel the acute relief wash over his host and gave him a reassuring pat in their shared space. Though his host had plenty of frightening tall tales and legends from his home region on the Tau'ri homeworld, but had assured him that they were usually told by old people to entertain children and were not true.

With Aldwin determinedly leading the way back into the ruins Leto's stronghold, Anise following him, Malek kept his hand on the zat'nik'tel at his side; legends were one thing, but it was still the real threat of the villagers that still posed a greater one. The fact that madness had over taken the villagers that they had tried to shell the stronghold without care, and had literally ripped apart Jaffa soldiers, as evidence with several half-decayed and scattered corpses that littered the ground in the woods, added to his worry.

Anise and Garshaw had been incredibly lucky to have made it back to their cargo ship back then, unharmed. He knew that currently, someone must have heard them land the cargo ship and would be investigating and while he was confident that perhaps the villagers would recognize him, it was not him who would also be facing danger. He didn't know if the villagers would recognize Aldwin, and if they did, then there was a good chance that they would not be able to differentiate between friend and foe.

It was a stigma that all former hosts to Goa'uld had to face, and even though Leto had not been truly one, Malek was no fool to understand that there were plenty of people left in the wake of the system lords who would never be able to forgive any freed person who had been their suppressor. They would be lucky to get into the stronghold, get whatever Aldwin thought they needed, and get back out without encountering any natives.

A few minutes later, with the entrances to the stronghold pretty much slagged over a month ago, they opted to climb up to the hole that had been made by what looked like a combination of a trebuchet's volley and concentrated strikes with staff weapons. As soon as Malek hauled himself into the structure, he saw that Aldwin was about to smash what looked like to be a simple, but large pot that was purely decorative looking.

“What are you doing?” Anise asked, just as Aldwin swung a brazier into the pot, shattering it. The ceramic pieces fell apart, but in the middle sat a small chest.

“Learned a lesson from your years of archaeological digs,” Aldwin answered, placing the brazier back down. “Leto and I hid stuff we thought was important away from the nicer-looking things that people might plunder. Go smash that one,” he said, gesturing towards another innocuous-looking pot. “There should also be another chest in there.”

“Well...” she began, but decided not to say anything else as Malek saw her shrug and proceed to destroy the other pot.

He turned from the decorative carnage being wrought as he looked back out and into the expansive clearing. Though he could feel his host's somewhat childish excitement at destroying random things in this place, he reigned him in. Someone had to keep an eye out and make sure that if there was any trouble, they would be able to get out of it fast. He could feel his host grumble a bit with the lack of 'fun' he could have been having in joining in. As a few more pots were smashed along this particular hall, he heard chests being opened and being rooted through, with Anise occasionally consulting Aldwin as to what things they needed to retrieve.

“An Atanik bracer,” Anise said after some minutes that ran at intervals of ceramic smashing and silence, causing Malek to glance back for a moment and see her standing up. In her hands, she held up a familiar-looking piece of equipment decorated in iridescent purple and blue colors.

“Ah,” Aldwin said, looking a bit sheepish as he glanced back from the chest he was digging through, “During the Ori invasion, Leto and I went back to that planet where you initially found them and managed to find another one intact. Leto was hoping to make something of it to help defeat the Ori, but she never got the chance to look at it in depth.”

“But it would never work with someone infused with naquadah. Both of you knew that. Ori physiology is also greatly different than that of normal humans. Was Leto thinking of modifying the contents of the virus and antidote within the bracer?”

“I don't know. Put it into the pack, please,” he said, returning his attention to the chest. “We might need it when we get to the planet.”

“Aldwin,” Anise warned. “If you use this...”

“Anise, please,” as Malek turned back to stare out at the expanse, hearing Aldwin say with a touch of annoyance mixed with desperation. “I don't know what we're going to face when we get there, but we'd best be prepared.”

As much as Malek wanted to jump in with his own concerns about using such a device, especially since his friend was dying, he refrained from doing so. He was here to help, not to antagonize his friend, and he did not want their last mission together to be filled with arguments. He heard the clinking of crystals, along with the faint scrape and tinkling sound of metal and glanced back again to see Aldwin slip his right hand into a kara kesh. Aldwin was holding a satchel that clinked when he wordlessly handed it over to Anise, who was also looking quite curiously at him, wondering what he was going to do with the kara kesh.

“I think that's it,” Aldwin softly said, standing up. “Let's go.”

“It is clear,” he stated as Anise approached, slinging the pack over her shoulders.

“Malek,” Aldwin said, catching his attention as he heard Anise jump down to the ground. “I need you to shoot me.”

Both he and his host blanched at the request, giving his friend a puzzled look before Aldwin modified his request, saying, “I mean, shoot my hand.”

Still puzzled, but knowing that it was futile to ask why, he brought his zat'nik'tel up and steadied his right hand with his left, aiming squarely for the kara kesh. Squeezing the trigger, a bolt of blue, surrounded by the _bzzt_ -hum leapt from the weapon and was immediately caught by the kara kesh as a ball of crackling energy. Watching with slight fascination, he saw Aldwin bring it up before flinging his arm backwards, sending the ball of energy flying towards the middle of the room. Upon contact with the ground, the ball of energy blew up in spectacular fashion, setting cloth and pieces of the hall on fire.

_**Neat,** _ he heard his host quip as he followed Aldwin out of the ruins.  _**I'm having some ideas on how we can possibly build something like that to harness energy and make our emergency generators more efficient.** _

_**Or are you still thinking of creating explosives with tech such as that?** _ he teased as they caught up with Anise, who was looking apprehensively around the clearing.

All joking thoughts disappeared as he glanced over at Anise before taking a look around. He had not seen or heard anyone approach the destroyed building when Anise jumped down, but now he was worried. Anise did not have much field experience, but the fact that she had not moved towards the relative safety of the woods told him that something was amiss.

“Mal--”

He held up a hand to silence Anise as he briefly closed his eyes for a moment, stilling his mind and  _listened_ as carefully as he could. The sounds of leaves rustling in the wind, crumbling rocks in the structure behind them, the faint sounds of beating hearts belonging to his friends...all filtered away, all removed and replaced only by silence.

At first, it was the barest hints of a whisper, as if a stray thought that was easily dismissed, but slowly, faintly, he could hear it – the source of the unease, and of what was coming. Opening his eyes, he reached for Anise's pack, saying, “We need to tunnel underground now.”

Wordlessly, Anise handed over the satchel of crystals, but Aldwin took it from him and immediately plucked out one before slamming it into the ground. The three of them backed away as a cavernous maw grew before them, sloping deep down into the ground. However, before the tunneling crystal was even half-way finished, the faint sounds that Malek had heard only moments before started to rise in volume.

“The mob?” Aldwin asked, though Malek could have sworn he heard a slight joking tone within his friend's question. He saw Anise glance back towards the end of the field and where the forests started, and out of curiosity, he did too, seeing distant forests start to sway. The mob, or rather, the highly disgruntled citizens of the planet that Leto had briefly ruled over, were coming.

“We cannot wait for it to finish,” he said, returning his attention to the still tunneling crystal. Without another word, the three of them ran into the tunnel, but not before Aldwin plucked another crystal from the satchel and struck into a crystalline formation near the entrance. Faster than Malek could think possible, the entrance to the tunnel collapsed, plunging them into near darkness with only the light from the still-tunneling first crystal faintly shining.

“We made some modifications to the crystals while living here,” Aldwin simply said, shrugging as if it were nothing.

_**Made some modifications, my ass,** _ Malek heard his host mutter,  _**that's a completely new crystal configuration.** _ However, he did not voice his host's opinions out loud. There was a time and place for such things, and right now, practicality and their next steps were more important. He instead said, “The teltac is most likely compromised, so we will have to get to the chappa'ai. Anise, do you know the address to the Atanik planet?”

Anise shook her head, saying, “We mapped a few planets after finding the initial settlement and the address list in one of the formerly hidden chambers, but we were never able to decode the address system with most of the associated planets.”

“Do you remember the address to the planet Leto wanted you to go to, Aldwin?”

“If I had a memory recall device, I can probably find the address,” Aldwin admitted. “I just remember the ship's star-chart coordinates.”

“I do have a memory recall device with me, but I do not think you should be using it, especially in your condition,” Anise immediately said, shaking her head slightly.

“We will discuss this later then,” he said, breaking into the potential argument before it could take a hold. “We have a more immediate problem to contend with. Considering that the chappa'ai is quite far from this place, do we have enough crystals to stay underground?”

“We should have enough,” Aldwin said, shaking the satchel slightly so that crystals clinked against each other.

Wordlessly, the three of them set off, with Malek in the lead. Though the hike would take a few hours, he knew that it would take longer. Somewhere along the way, they would need to stop, not because they would be tired, but because the temporary treatment that had been performed on Aldwin with the healing device would lose its effectiveness. They had limited air within the tunnels, and food and water were virtually non-existent, since they had left their perishables at the cargo ship. Symbiotes were able to sustain the host's body for a short while without proper nutrition, but Aldwin was another problem. Not only would he need another round of treatment to keep his body functioning, he also needed food and water. Ringed around the ruins of Leto's stronghold were many villages, and to tunnel up for resources was a risk that Malek wasn't sure that they could afford.

There was also the concern that where ever they were going when they reached the chappa'ai, he was uncertain if it would be a hospitable or a hostile world. He just hoped that his friend would have enough strength to make it.

~◊~

The human mind, no matter how resilient, how disciplined, always generated a curious response in the face of death. Whether or not it was an act of defiance, an acknowledgment that there was no more to be done in this life, or even just an uncaring thought thrown to the wind, Aldwin had gone through all lines of thoughts and still returned to previous ones during their long trek underground.

Nearly half-way to the chappa'ai, they had stopped, and it was only because his friends had insisted that he rest for a while. He had tried to protest the decision, feeling time slip away from him and the need to confirm that what Leto had sent him on was not a fool's errand, but his own body failed him. It had sent him spiraling into a swath of warm darkness for a few hours.

He had woken up completely famished, for Anise had used the healing device to repair what she could while Malek had tunneled up to steal some food and water. Eating what had been brought back, he was grateful that his friends had tried to keep him alive, but at the same time, he knew that eventually, not even the healing device would be able to repair his degenerate cells. The naquadah that had flooded his blood, not only from Leto but also from the modified sarcophagus, was already fast fading; replaced by anemic red and white blood cells that could barely keep his strength up, much less sustain him. He had tried to pass on whatever knowledge Leto had left in his memories, into a crystal, but the kara kesh had barely responded to his commands, frustrating him.

It was only after multiple frustrating attempts with the kara kesh that Freya had insisted that he stop and try the memory recall device to find out the address. Thus now, as they got closer to the chappa'ai, he had gone through so many memories of old, of things that his symbiote had not even shown him. Love, loss, life, war, death, subjugation, deception... everything that Leto had done in her thousands of years of existence had poured over him like a waterfall, threatening to drown him.

“Hey,” Freya's gentle voice said, snapping him out of the waking dream as he blinked and looked around in the darkness, seeing only the faint outlines of his friends.

He was leaning against the crystalline wall with a hand on his forehead, and not a moment later, a rush of a pulse-pounding headache filled him, causing him to wince. He did not cry out in pain, for he did not want to worry either of his friends, but the address was there, at the tip of his mind. He had finally found it after diving into his symbiote's ocean of memories.

“I... I have it,” he managed to say over the roar rushing across his ears and flashing white spots that covered his vision. It was stuffy down here and hard to breathe, but a moment later, there was a faint luminous blue glow, along with the crackling sound that indicated a crystal tunneling up towards the surface.

As light spilled in, along with a wash of fresh air, he brought his right hand that had been cradling and massaging his head down towards his eyes. It was much too bright and the light was causing the headache to get worse. Cool hands suddenly touched the side of his head and he barely felt something being pulled away from his right temple as a firm but strong grip clamped upon his left arm and help him lean away from the side of the walls.

“We are almost there, Aldwin,” Malek said from beside him as he took unsteady steps forward, nearly closing his eyes to just try to block out the light. “You can do it. Just hang on.”

Another pair of hands wrapped around his right arm, supporting him as he stumbled and with his friends helping him, he made the climb up and out of the tunnels. Malek and Anise kept by his side as the sights and sounds of the world around him were harsh and unforgiving. Too many new memories swam around his mind, but he kept the address at the forefront of his thoughts. He could not lose it, not now...not with how close he was to finishing what had been started so long ago.

~◊~

Anise was worried as she and Malek tried to make Aldwin take the necessary steps forward through the underbrush in the forest they had emerged into. The chappa'ai was clearly seen beyond the forest, but between the memory recall device and the failing health of their friend, they needed to stop. “Malek, we need to stop,” she said, looking over towards him. “He will not make it.”

She saw him glance behind them, but as she followed his gaze for the moment, she realized that he was not staring at the hole in the ground that the crystals had carved, but further into the forest. “Something is coming,” he said.

“It cannot be the villagers, can it?” she asked, noting that there was a hint of genuine fear that lined the tone of Malek's voice. The terrifying madness that had taken over the villagers as Garshaw had tried to rally them into a coherent force to fight against the Jaffa soldiers had sent both her and the Councilor running. Anise knew that both she and Garshaw had been lucky that none of the villagers cared about either of them as they saw them descend upon the patrols, overwhelming them with the sheer amount of numbers. Something had taken over the villagers, but she had not known what and only that there seemed to be a presence that did not want them there.

“Take him and go!” Malek urged, as the full weight of Aldwin was dumped onto her. She slung an arm around her friend's shoulders as she saw Malek remove the kara kesh that had been in Aldwin's hand and also take out his zat'nik'tel. As she hobbled towards the dialing device as fast as she could, there was a tremendous noise behind her, and she stopped for a moment as both she and Aldwin, who had regained some of his coherence to react, glanced back to see a thin, tall... _thing_ crashing through brush and low tree branches, loping towards them.

It was spindly-looking, quite emaciated, and extremely pale. As it got closer, she saw that it had no discernible areas where she could see eyes, except that its bulbous-like shape that was seemingly situated in the middle of its spider-like body contained a mouth. Fear gripped her as she stared at the unhinged jaw, with the maw full of black, rotted teeth, surrounded by a lip that was curled slightly up as if in a smile. Death was coming towards them.

It yowled, a terrifying sound that sent chills down her spine. Answering the challenge, was the whine of a zat'nik'tel being fired multiple times, as if trying to drown out such an unnatural sound. She saw the electric blue lances bounce quite futilely off of the hideously terrifying creature's skin. However, it was Aldwin who managed to snap her out of her fugue and tug her towards the dialing device. Making the decision, she snatched Aldwin's zat'nik'tel out of its holster and fired at the creature, while walking back towards where Aldwin was. She would be damned if her own inaction resulted in the death of her friends.

The distant rustling of the trees deeper within the forest, swaying to and fro alerted her to the fact that potentially more hostiles were coming. She continued to fire, even though her own bolts also bounced harmlessly off of the creature, but it proved to be a distraction on the creature that gave Malek the time he needed. She saw him fire his weapon into the kara kesh in his hand before lobbing the fiery ball of energy straight at the creature.

The sounds of the address being dialed was barely heard by her as the creature rocked back from the explosion, giving Malek precious seconds to retreat. Moments later, she felt herself being dragged back towards an active chappa'ai, as she heard Aldwin shout, “Malek!”

She saw Malek turned for a moment, noting that the chappa'ai was active and tried to run towards them. Just before she was forced across the blue horizon, she saw the creature shake its head, recovering from the point-blank explosion and quickly advance towards Malek. Aldwin's shouts alerted their friend to the danger, but it was too late. Her scream of denial was never heard as the cold liquid of the chappa'ai swallowed her in.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 12**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

Stumbling out from the chilling embrace of the chappa'ai, Anise landed on the hard ground, but continued to hold her zat'nik'tel aloft. There was a sense of panic that stemmed mainly from her host, quite scared out of her wits, but she remained as calm as possible. For a few moments, nothing followed her and she got up, continuing to point her weapon at the still-active chappa'ai. Slowly walking down the steps backwards, her back hit the dialing device, but there was still nothing emerging from the liquid horizon.

Suddenly, there was a faint _slurp_ as she saw a blurred figure emerge, moving too fast for her to identify. Less than a second later, Malek appeared next to her, stumbling slightly, with the kara kesh in his hand still actively glowing. Not a moment after that, the blurred figure of Aldwin stopped, but did not turn towards them and was instead, staring at the still-active chappa'ai. Dread dropped like a lead stone in her stomach as she saw what exactly was strapped to Aldwin's right arm – the Atanik bracer. She didn't know when and how he had retrieved it from the satchel she was carrying, but before she or Malek could say anything, something else emerged from the blue horizon.

“St--” she heard Malek start to shout, but did not complete his words as the two of them saw Aldwin take off at a speed greater than they could follow and plow straight into the pale creature even before it could react. Just as the chappa'ai's horizon vanished, the creature flew backwards and back into the disappearing blue liquid, immediately decapitating somewhere between what Anise could only assume was its head and chest.

Silence enveloped the area, broken occasionally by the caw of the planet's native birds. It was Alexei who broke the silence by running half-way up the stairs that ascended to the chappa'ai and roughly grabbed Aldwin by the front of his clothes, shaking him a bit. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” she heard Alexei yell, as Aldwin did not even react to being manhandled by Malek's host. “Are you insane?! The Atanik bracer will kill you faster!”

Leaving her zat'nik'tel on top of the dialing device, Anise approached but knew that Alexei's anger was not the same as a few days before when he had been quite enraged at Leto, before they found out the truth. This anger was borne of sadness and of frustration at what all of them thought Aldwin had idiotically done to himself. She stopped before the two, just as Alexei released Aldwin, turned and took a few steps away, folding his arms quite angrily across his chest.

There was regret written in Aldwin's eyes as she saw him silently track Alexei's back and forth pacing, who was most likely having an internal conversation with his symbiote. Lifting a hand and placing it upon Aldwin's forehead, she managed to draw his attention away and focus it on her. He was burning up and there was a thin sheen of sweat matting his forehead, but she knew it was all due to the bracer. Taking out her datapad, she activated as she removed her hand from his forehead and lifted his arm with the bracer up.

Panning the scanner on the datapad across the bracer, she glanced at the readings, grimly saying, “Unfortunately, the bracer's capacity is full and I am afraid that with your health, only perhaps a quarter of it will have been drained before...”

“How long do you think I have, Anise?” Aldwin quietly asked.

Unfortunately, even that simple of a question, so gently asked of her, caused her to fall silent for a long moment as she bit her lip to keep tears from falling. It took a combination of her host and her own will to not break down, but at long last, she managed to shut down the datapad before saying, “Five, perhaps six hours at the most. Due to your body and the state it was in before you put the bracer on, the virus did not have to work through any robust immune system and will work much faster through you than it did to SG-1.”

“Then we don't have a lot of time to waste,” Aldwin simply answered.

“No, we do not,” Malek spoke up, coming back towards them, looking much calmer now that he was back in control. “Do you know where this thing might be located?”

Anise turned from her examination as she pocketed the datapad and retrieved her zat'nik'tel, handing it back to Aldwin. Looking out at the expanse of the golden red-streaked sky of a setting sun on the temperate planet they had arrived upon, she saw tall, red-marbled ziggurats in the distance, surrounded by crumbled, white-marbled columned structures. At the top of the ziggurats were a small domed shrine of sorts that seemed to reflect the waning sun. It was beautiful and unsettling at the same time, for inside of previous ziggurats that she had explored before was an intricate maze that needed to be carefully solved to reach the shrine.

“It's somewhere that way,” Aldwin said, pointing towards a cluster in the distance. “It should be the only one that would be emitting a field or power of some sort, since it is powered by what the Tau'ri call the source to be a Zero-Point Module.”

“But that's Ancient technology,” she said as they descended the steps and started off towards their destination. “There were no evidence in all of the texts I managed to translate so far about the Ataniks utilizing Ancient power sources.”

“You did say that they were an ancient race,” Malek pointed out.

“Yes...” she began but fell silent as she pulled out her datapad. Activating it, she recalibrated the scanner portion of it as she said, “I will try to scan for any energy signatures, but given the power and range of the device, I do not know if it will even pick up any faint signatures.”

“Thanks,” Aldwin said. “It's definitely worth a try.”

They crunched along the semi dry and cracked dirt path for a few minutes in silence until it was Malek who broke it, saying, “Have you ever encountered those creatures on that planet before, Aldwin?”

Looking up from her datapad, Anise saw her friend shake his head as he said, “No, but I did hear legends about a hunting type of creature of some sort. I thought they were just that, legends, but neither of us were sure about what had occupied the planet before people settled on it, so Leto armed the Jaffa with personal shields, just in case. It was not meant to stymie your cell, Malek – the shields and the Jaffa patrols were meant to see if the legends held true and if a creature such as the one that attacked us was real.”

“But why us? Why near the chappa'ai?” Malek mused. “We left a hole in the caverns and it did not drop in and follow us. I even trekked through the woods by myself to go to the nearest village for food and water. I had the feeling that something was watching us, but even when the cell lived among the villagers, that creature didn't even bother attacking anyone whenever they went out to harvest food.”

“Perhaps it is attracted to symbiotes or to the naquadah flowing through the blood of symbiotes and their hosts,” she said, speculating. “After all, look at what had been wrought upon the Jaffa soldiers during the assault. Pitch forks, axes, and simple farming tools would roughly hack a person, and staff blasts would leave clear marks, but the bodies we found seemed to have been viciously torn apart by a wild animal.”

“Then why, did it not attack us before the assault on the stronghold began? Why did not not attack you or Garshaw?”

“Too focused on the Jaffa?” she hazarded a guess, shrugging slightly.

“Regardless, the Council should be informed that the planet be made off limits to any of the Tok'ra and to any other travelers be they Tau'ri or otherwise who have been host to a symbiote,” Malek said. In a lighter tone, he said, “Alexei tells me that he is still having waking nightmares about the creature, regardless of my attempts to purge it from our memories.”

“I admit,” Anise began, “the creature was quite terrifying, but surely it was not as terrifying as those sentient plants on the first planet we scouted out after evacuating Vorash?”

“Those?” Malek asked, his tone as innocent as possible. “I thought we all made a pact to never speak of it again.”

Silence again fell upon them, but it was not as cold or as uncomfortable as before as the three of them couldn't help but laugh at the memories that had been brought up. It was only because of the good memories they all had that they shared a chuckle, but it was borne out of acceptance that what was going to happen to each of them after this final adventure was over, was going to happen.

“My dear friends,” Aldwin said in a quiet, contemplative yet peaceful tone, “It has been an honor.”

A bittersweet smile graced her face as Anise wrapped an arm around him, pulling him close enough that he stumbled slightly on the dusty path. Leaning her head against the side of her friend's arm as they continued walking, she said, “We are with you until the end.”

“That we are,” she heard Malek say as an additional weight and the slight tug of Malek also embracing Aldwin pulled him slightly away her. “You are Tok'ra, Aldwin. You, Taelon, Dian, and Leto. Others may never appreciate what you have done for us, but know that we do. The honor has been ours, to have served with someone as loving, caring, brave, and selfless as you.”

~◊~

It took them over five hours to find the ziggurat that emitted a faint energy signature barely detectable by Anise's calibrated datapad. However, two things stood in their way of searching for Leto's final gift. The first was that with the time it took, Aldwin was no longer looking quite healthy and robust as he did when he first put on the Atanik bracer. The second thing standing in their way was the fact that at the most visible entrance that looked like it led straight into the heart of the structure, there was a forcefield blocking their way.

It had surprised all three of them when they had encountered the forcefield that repelled them with enough force to send all three of them flying backwards. As faint of an energy signature the structure was giving off, surely it was absurd that such a strong forcefield was blocking their way. It was also then that Malek had noticed and pointed out many burnt markings on the ground and what looked like fresh grass and weed growth around the base of the structure – as if staff blasts and other heavy weaponry had been waylaid into the structure long before they had arrived.

Goa'uld system lords who most likely came to this planet to loot technology had attempted to break into the structure, but had failed. Unfortunately, Anise's datapad could not pinpoint the location of the power source, but given what Aldwin had stated earlier about a Zero-Point Module being the source, he had a hunch that the source was _inside_ of the structure. It was genius, for it prevented anyone who blended with a symbiote to even try to access such an item. Not even the ascended system lord Anubis would have been able to access it. However, it also prevented non-blended looters from casually walking in.

He couldn't help but question how Leto had hidden whatever she had hidden in there, if she had been blended with a host. If the Ataniks had created weaponry to repel those who had naquadah in their blood, how on earth did Leto convince them to trust her?

“Its somewhere in the memories she left me,” Aldwin said, as Malek realized he had voiced that last question out loud. “I don't know, but somehow, she convinced the Ataniks that she was not a threat. Hell, even I don't know if her presence here on this planet led to the eventual extinction of the Ataniks by Goa'uld hands.”

“Well, if she hid something of great value, it would make perfect sense,” Anise said, as the three of them looked at the entrance that was staring quite tantalizing back at them.

“I have an idea,” Aldwin said after a moment, as Malek felt the pressure on his left shoulder ease with his friend straightening up after having used him to brace himself for a few minutes. There was a clear sheen of sweat on his friend's face, along with an ashen look, but he knew that voicing his worry for his friend's health was going to do no good. There was no way to remove the Atanik bracer until the antidote was injected.

Shaking his head slightly, he knew what Aldwin had in mind, and instead, said, “Do not try to look for the object by yourself, Aldwin. Shut off the power and we will come right in and join you. Please do not be reckless. We will do this together.”

“I know,” came the simple reply and a blink of an eye later, Aldwin disappeared, crossing the forcefield with ease.

Agonizing seconds of waiting turned into minutes as he saw Freya, having taken over control from Anise moments ago, kicked the dirt, sending a small cloud of dust up into the air. He could feel his host's uncharacteristic impatience at just how long it was taking. Those minutes started to stretch and worry bleeding through from his host and into him caused him to open and close his hands a few times. He dared not think about potential scenarios that could have happened, but what was taking Aldwin so long to get the forcefield down?

Just as he thought the wait could not get any longer, there was suddenly silence where the faint hum of the forcefield used to fill. Immediately, he felt Freya snatch up his hand and together both of them sprinted as fast as they could into the structure. Darkness surrounded them, with only the faintly luminous purplish glow of strange plants within the structure lighting their way through the maze. Leaves as razor sharp as knife blades pricked at them, but the kept to the center of the paths, trying to not slip on the sandy floor.

Each turn they took led them to dead ends, turn after turn, and even areas where he thought they had doubled back. There was absolutely no evidence that had been left behind by Aldwin and his rush through the corridors with the Atanik bracer. With the inside of the structure not even mapped to Anise's datapad, they had no idea where they were going.

“Aldwin!”

Freya's shouts echoed through the halls as Malek felt the pit in his stomach, amplified by his host's anxiety, grow. The dimness didn't help either, and even with their enhanced senses, there were still areas where they were stumbling and tripping. He tightly held onto Freya's hand as they continued to run through the maze of halls, hoping that somehow, their friend could hear their voices and answer.

“Malek!” Freya suddenly said, jerking them to a halt. “Anise might have sensed something.”

Tugging on his hand, she suddenly turned into a sharp corner and ran as fast as she could. Brambles, branches of overgrowth, sharp-tipped leaves scratched at them as they continued to run, and little by little, Malek thought he was hearing a faint whine or hum of some sort. The fact that his host also agreed that they could hear a faint sound was reassuring. A sharp left, right, then another long run down a slippery hall, ended up with another sharp right, and at the end of the hall was a faint source of blue-greenish light.

“Aldwin!” Freya called again as they broke into a sprint, nearly slipping on the sandy-stone tiles beneath them.

Malek skidded to a halt as soon as they crossed the entrance to this chamber, pulling his zat'nik'tel out, scanning the area for any signs of hostile forces. However, Anise, having taken over from Freya, immediately ran towards where the prone body of Aldwin was, sitting on the ground and leaned against a rather ominous-looking rectangular structure. A box, humming with power and emitting the source of the light, sat before Aldwin, unopened. There was nothing around he could see, save the rectangular structure, something dusty and quite decayed lying near the corner of the chamber, and Aldwin and the box.

“No, no, no,” Anise repeated over and over again, pulling Aldwin towards her, cradling his head. Malek put his weapon away and approached, and in the dim light from the box, he noticed that a small portion of the rectangular structure had been opened and that there were crystals inside. With a start, he realized that this structure was a sarcophagus, but he had never seen one of this design before. Some of the crystals had been taken out, while others were still left in there – had Aldwin been trying to modify this particular one before they got to him?

“Please,” Anise begged to Aldwin, as Malek turned from the dangerous device, and crouched next to them, knowing that there was nothing he could do to even begin finishing Aldwin's work on the sarcophagus. “Please open your eyes...”

Malek placed a hand on Aldwin's forehead, noting that he looked too pale to be even considered still alive, but the body temperature was still within the range for a living human, though Aldwin's temperature felt abnormally low. He glanced down to see that the wretched Atanik bracer was still on Aldwin's forearm and was still burning his friend's life away. Taking Aldwin's arm, he tried to yank the bracer off, using as much strength as he had, and even with his host pouring his own will into it, the bracer could not be removed.

Fortunately, the action had caused Aldwin's eyes to flutter slightly as Anise whispered, “Aldwin?”

“P-Pan...dora's... box,” Aldwin weakly whispered, barely able to form words as he tried to lift an arm towards the humming and faintly glowing box near them.

“Pandora's box?” Anise repeated, as Malek turned slightly and plucked the humming box from the floor, bringing it closer to them. “Dr. Jackson said that the Tau'ri mythology speaks of a powerful box that was opened, unleashing chaos upon the world. When the box was finally closed, the only thing left that had not been unleashed was Hope.”

“Egeria...” Aldwin whispered, taking a shuddering breath. “Egeria's last child... a queen... Hecate...”

Malek's eyes widened of their own accord as he realized just what was in the box and gingerly pried the top off of the box, allowing a blue-green glow to fill the room. A sound that was a cross between a screech and hiss was heard as he looked inside and saw an enormous symbiote, larger than the usual size of a mature symbiote, swimming about. This was a symbiote queen – Egeria's final gift to the Tok'ra, to her children. This must have been her contingency plan for she must have suspected that one day, she would not be able to continue to pass on her legacy.

As fast as hope and joy filled him, it was dampened when he saw a shadow below the symbiote queen. As if sensing his confusion, the symbiote queen seemed to curl up a little more and reacting to that, a second symbiote, the size of a normal one, swam up. The second symbiote seemed to try to force the queen symbiote back down so that she was behind it, as if trying to protect the queen.

“There are two of them in this box,” he whispered, looking up and over at Anise, who was looking worriedly back at Aldwin before turning towards the box, trying to see the contents of it. “A queen and one other normal, mature one.”

“Sentinel,” the word was barely heard as he saw Aldwin say, but seize up in pain as he tried to cough but couldn't find the strength to. As soon as the fit passed, Malek wanted to stop his friend from explaining any further, wanting him to save his strength for the journey back home, but Aldwin continued, whispering, “Hecate's sentinel. Asteria... Leto's sister...”

“Hope,” Anise murmured, brushing Aldwin's forehead with gentle fingers, though his eyes had fluttered closed with the movement. “You... Leto... gave us hope.”

“Aldwin,” he said, replacing the lid and gently placing the box back down. He grasped his friend's hand, as if he could pour life into him with just that move, and bowed his head slightly, saying, “thank you.”

Silence answered them.

 

~*~*~*~


	14. Chapter 14

**Epilogue**

_12 years after the death of Ra..._

 

Daniel scratched the back of his head as he watched Vala tend to the former host of Ba'al with a fondness that he had rarely seen before. Before he and Vala had left yesterday, the Tok'ra healers had told them that Ba'al's host's body was adapting to the lack of sarcophagus and naquadah. It would take a long time, even longer than it had taken Vala or Sarah to recover from being hosts to Goa'uld, but eventually, the former host of Ba'al would be able to live a normal life.

So far, the host was reacting quite well to the healing device treatment. Tanith's host was also well enough and with only a couple of treatments with the device, he would be able to function normally again. Leaving Vala with the healers, he returned to the main hall that held the stargate. What had happened a few days ago during the final execution had caused sickened Vala enough that she did not want to eat or join the rest of SG-1 at Jack's house for a celebratory dinner. It was at that dinner that Daniel had told the rest of his teammates about what had happened to Leto and to the symbiote's host.

He had not heard the entire story behind Leto, but from what Vala had told him before they had left the Tok'ra homeworld, it had made him both angry and disappointed at the Tok'ra. They were a people driven to the depths of paranoia and scheming and when a group of people lived that way for two thousand years, there were bound to be more than a few major inter-personal issues. He didn't blame them for not knowing that one of their own had been in enemy hands for a very long time, but he did blame them for not letting justice or due process take its course. The accidental death of one of their oldest allies was their price for their overzealous attitude.

Now however, Aldwin was missing, and according to guardsmen, had been for a few days. Two other Tok'ra were also missing, Malek and Anise, along with a teltac. Sam, commanding the _General Hammond_ , had mentioned intercepting an Ori attack on a cargo ship being piloted by Malek, but the communication had been brief. No one knew where they went, and no one knew if they would be back. According to what little Garshaw had told him, the three Tok'ra had been quite close for nearly the entire time the Tok'ra had been in existence. Hosts had changed throughout the decades, but Wadjet/Leto, Malek, and Anise were constant. He could only hope that the two symbiotes knew what they were doing, for Aldwin's condition and initial prognosis after extraction had not looked good at all.

The sounds of an incoming wormhole on the stargate broke him off of his thoughts as he saw the chevrons light up and the familiar sounds of the liquid blue wormhole _woosh_ ing into existence. Around him, he saw Tok'ra guardsmen become alert and had pointed their weapons at the open gate. Before he could react or even attempt to duck behind a pillar, two familiar-looking people staggered through the wormhole. As the wormhole winked out, Daniel saw one of the two, carrying a body, collapse to his knees, while the other gingerly knelt down to assist him, trying not to upset or drop the faintly glowing box that was in her hands.

As the guardsmen around him placed their weapons back into their holsters, a few hurried away, calling for healers and assistance, while others rushed to help the two Tok'ra who had arrived. He approached, and sadness tugged at his heart as he saw who Malek had carried through the stargate. Lying motionless in the arms of his friends was Aldwin. Without a word, Daniel knew that the Tok'ra had had one final mission and that his friends had helped him complete it.

 

~*~*~*~

FINI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit, this fic is not one of my most fluid works. It was born out of a combination of ideas (including writing more spycraft shenanigans in a different universe) and a huge writer's block on a series that I had been in the midst of writing (Rurouni Kenshin/Peacemaker Kurogane crossover stories). It was supposed to only be about 30,000 or so words - a short, short story. It was also supposed to be a 2014 Winter Holidays present for Shadow Chaser...that turned into a regular short story. However, after consulting with Shadow Chaser, I am proud to say that this has been accepted into the Stargate Atlantis Alternate Season 3 series that Shadow Chaser is/has writing/written (though the "present-day" part takes place at the end of Season 3 of SGA).
> 
> Therefore, there will be a sequel written and posted sometime after I hopefully finish my other series of stories. Thank you all for reading and see you in the next installment!


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